What is the biggest hinderance to a fruitful Christian life? We may think it is sin, but it is self!

Self stops us from obeying God. Self makes us question God. Self always resists the purposes of God! The Bible tells us that God has a good plan for our lives, but many of us never find that plan because we do not obey God. The reason we do not obey is because we have not surrendered to Him! When God asks us to do something, we want to take a vote on the subject. When God asks us to give up something that is harming us, we ask our feelings if they agree. Self resists obeying God and states, “But what about me? What will I get from this?”

How many times in our Christian lives do we state, “Me, me, me, I, I, I?” How much of our Christian lives are filled with, “I want, I feel, but God I don’t want to!” All of these expressions are the manifestation of self. If we want to grow in God, we must understand that our thoughts, feelings and desires – our self – does not know how to satisfy our soul and spirit. How many people have got ‘everything they ever wanted’ and found out that they didn’t want it after all? Many people who get all they wanted realise that it cannot fill their soul with joy and they lose all hope.

How many people today are feeling hopeless? This is what happens when we build our lives based on what we want, feel or like, instead of on the will and Word of God. Only the Holy Spirit knows what we really need. Only He knows how to fill our souls with joy. Only God knows how to make us feel complete in Him. Therefore, if we are going to grow in God, we have to lay self on the altar of God and in the words of Jesus, “Take up your cross daily and follow Me.”

The apostle Paul explains that we must walk in the Spirit and allow God to crucify our flesh/self. ‘Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh (self) with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit’ (Galatians 5:24-25).

Paul Backholer

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Paul's Books:
Jesus Today Go
Holy Spirit Power Go
The Exodus Evidence Go
The Ark of the Covenant Go
How Christianity Made the Modern World Go
Heaven - A Journey to Paradise and the Heavenly City Go