Trying So Hard

I have had a lot on my mind in the past few weeks with so much going on in my life and trying to do all I can to live for my Lord and Savior. I have been wondering what is God going to do with my life and how can I be used most effectively. Sometimes I wonder if I am doing what God wants me to be doing. My Pastor, John Werhas reminds us that I don’t make up the plans of my life then tell God to follow me. But I am to do the will of God and follow Him. I think I know what the will of God is for me but why do I seem to flounder at times?

There are some key areas in my life that I KNOW I need to stay focused on and those things are obeying, praying and and keeping in fellowship with my Lord and Savior, loving my wife and trying to be the best husband I can, training my children in the ways of the Lord and serving the body of Christ. It sounds so simple but why is it so hard sometimes? I think I have an answer and it always goes back to ME. Why oh why does my will get in the way of these things?

Trying so hard on my own strengths, on my own desires, on my own ideas. I think of the new Casting Crowns song Altar and the Door and I probably need to apply this more to my life, it goes like this:

I'm trying so hard to stop trying so hard
Just let You be who You are
Lord, who You are in me

I am trying so hard but let “I” stop trying so hard and let Jesus be who He is in me. I know I have huge responsibility to keep running the race and I need to do my part. There is so much to learn and I thank God for His Love Letter to us all. Lord please help me to be sold out completely for you. Help me Lord to deny myself and pick up my cross.

Jesus Said in Matthew 11:28
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Jesus Let me find rest in You.

All praise, all worship, all glory, all honor, go to the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ.

Wes
Galatians 2:20

We Are Saved Just Like Abraham

We are still continuing through the book of Genesis in my men’s small group (MOB). This week we have read through were God accounted His righteousness to Abram. Many people ask how were the people in the Old Testament saved? Just like we are saved today through the blood of Christ. Our hope is in the things that have already happened, that we have faith, belief and repentance to what Christ already did.

Abram and the the people before Christ died had faith, belief and repentance in the forward promise of God. The Old testament points forward to the cross, the gospels point at the cross and the rest of the Bible points back at the cross. It is always the same way how someone is saved.

Genesis 15:6 says,
And he(Abram) believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

Just like John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

It is always based on what Christ has imputed to us and nothing of our own. However, as James says without works do we really have faith. Not that our salvation comes from works but just that it proves our faith. He writes in James 2:21-24

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

Pastor John Courson puts all of this in a crystal clear statement by saying the following:

Was it when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees—a place of real sophistication and wealth—that God declared Abraham righteous? No. Was it when Abraham took his son Isaac to Mount Moriah in order to offer him as a sacrifice that God declared him justified? No. God declared Abraham righteous when Abraham simply believed Him (Genesis 15:6). When is a man saved and justified? Not when he follows God’s call obediently or even offers himself sacrificially, but when, like Abraham, he simply says, “Lord, I believe You. I believe what You say is true—that I’m righteous in Christ Jesus, that my sins past, present, and future are all forgiven.”

It is our belief, faith and repentance(turning toward God) that saves us. It is not something we earn. God calls us to HIm, we never come to Him on our own merits. I was once dead but He has now breathed life into me.

All Glory, All Honor, All Worship go to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Wes
Galatians 2:20