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Why We Strive to Walk! By Traci Morin

Do you ever feel like you are living a defeated life in Christ trying to walk the faith!  I know I have.  What are you doing in your Christian walk to gain more of the Lord’s love and acceptance?  Do you feel like you have to do something to gain more of His love for you?

Have you been one of those Christians, has done what you know to do through experience and find out it did not work and feel defeated and unacceptable?  Are you trying to change what we are, what you do, and your circumstance so you will be more acceptable?  Have you tried all the particular methods of programs to change and even felt more unacceptableness or felt as though you are a defeated Christian?  

What is the answer!  The answer is not something that we must do but rather something that we must believe!  Christian growth is simply accepting what we have always had from the beginning, from the first day we gave our lives to Christ!  And this simple life – the victorious life – will be experienced only through the abiding life.

What is the abiding life?  The Lord one day gave me a revelation some years ago that set me free from the walk of striving.  Not to say I still wrestle with that.  He showed me that there was nothing I could do, or say or perform to gain more of His love or acceptance because He already loved me.  He didn’t love me more because I received Him, but had partaken into His promises for me when I accepted Him.  His love for us is more than any of us could ever comprehend.  Also, there is nothing I could do including sinning that could take away the Love and acceptance He has for me.  Yes, when we sin we reap the consequences of sin.  The difference between an unbeliever and a believer is that the believer has the promises of eternal life the sinner is separated from Him and is condemned to eternal hell.  When I accepted Him, I became His child.  It was His love for us when we were sinners (lost) that he called us to Him – we accepted Him because He had already accepted us.   The difference is that the separation from me to Him was removed.  The wall from the Holy of Holies was removed and my relationship with Him was restored.

Again, the abundant life is not something to work for, but rather is something given to be worked from.  My acceptance is not based on what I do but rather on what I am.  (Acts 17:28 says, For in him we live, and move, and have our being;) Abundant life does not require that I imitate Jesus, but rather that I participate in His life; it does not require that I work to believe, but that I work because I believe.  

How then do I experience this life abundant?  How do I discover a life free from sin?  And how can it be mine without effort?  God’s answer is specifically designed to be within the grasps of the weak, the failure, the unacceptable, the ignorant, the frustrated, and the hopeless.  The answer is abiding in Him.

God’s answer to abundant life is simple.  The Christian must learn to believe and receive by faith – faith we may not know we possess – not great talent, ability, or intellect.  The problem is not that God places on us a great and difficult task to perform in order to experience Him or His peace, rest and joy.  The problem is that we place on ourselves these great tasks and standards/acceptance that is higher than God’s.  Therefore, we end up struggling because of our own effort to change.  We can rest that we are accepted and Loved knowing I don’t have to perform to receive more of His love.  Receiving this truth can and will produce rest for you to receive peace and joy in your life.  What is holding you back to believe?

I Am Accepted
I am a child of God
John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
I am holy and acceptable to God (justified)
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
have been bought with a price. I belong to God
1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
have been adopted as Christ's child
Ephesians 1:5 In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will
I am complete in Christ
Colossians 2:10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
I Am Secure?
I am free forever from punishment
Romans 8:1,2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
am free from any condemning charges against me
Romans 8:31f What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us??
I cannot be separated from the love of God
Romans 8:35f Who shall separate us from the love of Christ??
I Am Significant?
I am a part of the true vine, joined to Christ and able to produce lots of fruit
John 15:1,5 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
am hand-picked by Jesus to bear fruit
John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
I am a Spirit-empowered witness of Christ
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
am a peace with God and He has given me the work of making peace between Himself and other people
2 Corinthians 5:17f Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!?