It never ceases to amaze me how sin will make itself known the instant we are in need. After all, isn’t that when we are at our weakest? Satan will try to tempt us by offering opportunities to comfort our emotional, physical and sexual needs outside of God. If we have provisional needs he may try to provide opportunities that would pay our bills legally, but rape our souls morally.
How ironic that he will use the very things we have stood for our entire lives, to try to make us faulter and sin against God, in order to meet our own needs during times of struggle.
It is during these tests and trials that we must not become a compromising Christian!
Surrender and Serve Whom?
God wants our complete surrender and service, which includes giving up any sin in our lives. It means we should get right with Him and stay that way by choosing obedience over everything else (the world, our flesh, our feelings, etc.) If there are areas of our lives where we knowingly have sin or are involved in something ungodly, then those are areas we have obviously not surrendered to God. And if we are a slave to sin that means we are in bondage to Satan for, we can not serve two masters at once.
Whether you like to think about it or not, you surrender and serve either one or the other everyday by the choices you make.
A Bargaining Chip?
Sin also gives us a false sense of security. Even with all I know, I still sometimes continue to lie to myself, wanting desperately to believe I can justify sin and surrender everything to God except maybe just this tiny little piece. I think “Oh, come on God! I’m doing so good with everything else, I just want this one tiny little spec for myself and you can have ALL the rest, alright?” Then I pat myself on the back pretending it’s God saying, “Yep, we’re good!”
Do you ever do that?
Do you ever try to bargain with God?
He Wants ALL Of You!
We cannot be one with God if we are knowingly living in sin. Sin separates us from God. He wants even that tiniest piece of us otherwise, we are not in complete surrender. He is a jealous God and He wants our complete attention. Our excuses or reasons for not obeying God’s word can never amount to anything more than selfish justifications and we must recognize that thoughts like those are from the enemy.
To surrender and serve God is to choose obedience over everything else and not compromise our faith!
Related articles
- Spiritual Warfare (richwendling.wordpress.com)
- Tormenting the Christian (lifeofafemalebiblewarrior.wordpress.com)
April 18, 2012 at 3:06 pm
Well writen post! Thank you for the timely reminder.
April 18, 2012 at 4:13 pm
And thank you for taking the time to read it :)
April 13, 2012 at 3:21 pm
JessieJ–fabulous message! ALL of us He wants, just as He gave ALL of His only begotten Son on that Cross of Calvary and then defeated death and the grave forever, for ALL of us (if we so choose to accept this free gift), which we celebrated this past Easter Sunday, and which many of us continue to celebrate this Easter Week–and always celebrate in our hearts! We are to bring ourselves as living and whole selves to Him as our rightful sacrifice in appreciation for this mind-blowing gift of His son to us–and now the gift of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit! Our God is an AWESOME God– the very least we can do is give Him our Whole selves, unstintingly–yes, we have all sinned and come short–but we can do better with His help–we can walk in His Grace and His Love ALWAYS!
April 14, 2012 at 4:50 pm
“ALL of us He wants, just as He gave ALL of His only begotten Son”
AMEN!
April 9, 2012 at 8:17 pm
Wonderful message, Jessie. Thank you for reminding me how Satan works in my life to interrupt my intimate relationship with Jesus. Thank you. And God bless you!
April 10, 2012 at 6:00 pm
Thanks so much Steven and its good to see you again my friend :) I hope you and your family had a wonderful Easter and many blessings!
April 10, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Thank you, Jessie. It is good to hear from you. Even though we had differences about our writing methods I feel as if I made a good and lasting friend. I hope we can catch up with each other again soon. God bless you.
April 10, 2012 at 8:04 pm
I feel the same way Steven and would welcome an opportunity to catch up sometime. While you and I approach writing differently, having different styles, it has nothing to do with our friendship or relationship in Christ. You are a part of my Christian family and I will always keep you and your wife in my prayers. Be well friend!
April 10, 2012 at 8:29 pm
Thank you, Jessie. You re a vital part of my Christian family too. I will try to be in touch later this week or early next week to catch up (got it Steven, thank you.) Thank you and God bless you, my Sister In Christ.
April 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Happy Resurrection Sunday Jessie! God bless!
Sherline
April 9, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Blessings to you too lovely lady and I hope you had a wonderful weekend in the Lord! :)
April 7, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Excellent post Jessie you did very well in writing this. Many people don’t see that when we allow the enemy to tempt us, in reality he is raping us of the needs God has promised to give us, thank you for sharing my dear
April 7, 2012 at 9:05 pm
Thank you and well said Desiray :)
April 7, 2012 at 10:06 am
We have no excuse to compromise. Great reminder!
April 7, 2012 at 5:59 pm
Very true although, much easier said than done of course, especially in todays world! Yet, we know Christ endured the same trials and temptations we face everyday, and there is so much power in that!
April 6, 2012 at 4:29 pm
well thought out and said
April 6, 2012 at 4:35 pm
thank you :)