What holds us back?  

Fear

            Crazy Love – Chan – When we sacrifice, give and even suffer, we can rejoice because we know God rewards.  We are always recipients of his great and manifold gifts.  Not the givers – never the givers. 

 We do not yet see how much we are loved.  We are his treasure, his inheritance.

We have a tendency to focus on lack – instead of all God is – and all He would give – with Jesus, He freely gives us all things (Rom. 8:32).  He is what we need.  How many of us are giving to men and women boys and girls things we would not be giving if they were not related to our child?  We get it in the natural – we just have trouble believing it in the spiritual.

 We forget our life is a vapor.  It isn’t just time that’s flying.  It’s our life. 

Tozer – A man may waste himself, which is to waste that which on earth is most like God. 

 We forget God’s blessings – or we take them for granted.

 We are friends of the world.  James 4:4 – Adulterers and adulteresses!  Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

            I Jn. 2:15-17  Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.  And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

            LORD HELP!  Not my will but yours be done.  What foolishness to live for our own will and things that are passing away – and how hard not to! 

 We are centered on self.  On the average day we live caught up in ourselves.  Crazy Love – How we live our days is how we live our lives. In Forgotten God Chan asks the question – What would it look like to walk in the Spirit and not the flesh for the next 10 minutes?  It really made me realize how often I default to just doing what comes naturally!  Not bad – but not intentionally following the Spirit.  We will not deny self unintentionally.

And self wants to live.  As much as the flesh body fights to stay alive – the fallen flesh nature fights to stay alive.   It requires crucifixion (a living sacrifice) – a painful process that strips us of selfishness, pride and fear. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life has to go.

We are surprised by how hard it is.  It can confuse us when loving God is hard.  We expected it to be easier than signing up for the Marines!  We have a hard time believing we’re in a war with an incredibly evil enemy who doesn’t care what it takes or how long it takes to wreck our faith, our lives, our influence.

Total surrender – giving up all we have, to the point that our lives are a living sacrifice requires that we realize His power is made perfect in our weakness.  It’s not out of His character to ask for everything.  It’s radical and sometimes terrifying.  Not to surrender – to depend on my own wisdom, my own strength, my own motives, contrary to the leading of the Spirit is more frightening.  It is God’s work.  He knows it’s hard for us.

Knowledge can lead to greater intimacy and a deeper relationship with God, but it’s not automatic.  We need to respond to Him and assimilate His truth into our lives.  To know and not do is sin.  Chan – Forgotten God.

We don’t understand the worth and glory of what we are being called to.

                Realizing the value, they gave everything for the treasure and the pearl (Matt. 13:44-46).  There is a cost to be counted and paid – but the main focus is the worth!  If we see the worth – we are willing to pay the price!

            We think denying self will make us miserable.

 We are deceived.  All that holds us back is deception.  Our feelings lie to us, crippling and destroying us.  It occurred to me that we can live through the torment of those lying emotions and, through the Spirit, do the right thing, or we will live and die through the tormenting consequences.  It’s so easy to pick immediate relief over long-term gain.  It takes faith and intentional obedience to do otherwise.

Parts 3 and 4 are coming.