The best is yet to come.
I can try so hard to be perfect. I want to be perfect, and live every day to God's glory...but always, without fail (oh, the irony) my sinful nature kicks in, and I can't even complete the most minuscule of tasks without ending up falling right back into sin. It is overwhelming how much sin I have, and my own inability to do anything about it.
But then...I don't have to do anything about it. God already did. Jesus dying on that cross 2,000 years ago freed me from the bondage of sin. He has given me the strength, through Himself, to fight against all temptation. That said, I am still human. I still have the sin nature inside of me. I am inherently sinful. So, even though through Christ I have the ability to overcome temptation, ultimately: I am still only human. Until that glorious day when I arrive at home in heaven... I'm still going to have that sin nature fighting my every effort to become more Godly.
It's really frustrating, really. I want to live every day on this earth wholly, and purely, and have my every moment reflect God's amazing grace and goodness for humankind!... But I can't. I never will be able to while I'm here on earth. I'll never be truly free from the burden of my sin until I arrive at the gates of heaven. I want so badly, to be able to glorify God in all that I do... and I can't.
If you're a born-again believer, I'm sure that you can understand what I'm talking about. Because we know the one who is perfectly holy, blameless, spotless: perfect; we realize how much we fail, and perhaps even worse, we know who we're failing.
It sucks.
There are days when I want to give up. I am tired, I'm worn down. I don't want to fight it anymore. It's hard work... And I start to wonder: why? What is the point, anyways? If I'm likely to give into the temptation tomorrow that I'm fighting today, why? I want to give up.
It is so hard.
It would be so much easier to just stop fighting, and give in.
These next words are for you as much as they are for myself.
Don't.
Give.
Up.
We are broken, sinful, worn down, creatures of sin. But God, in all of His wondrous glory, all of His love for you and me... He sent His most beloved one, God sent His Son, so that we have hope. More than hope, we have a promise.
You will fail. I will fail. We will stumble, and fall, and break, and cry, and want to give up. We are sinful, unholy, imperfect, impure, and we have the most dire addiction of all: sin.
But everything that you aren't, God is. He will never fail, He will never stumble, fall, break, cry, or give up on us. He is not sinful, He is perfect, pure, and He has never sinned. And the best yet: He loves us. He is everything that we are not... We are an abhorrence to His holiness. But He loves us. He loves YOU. He loves ME.
We have been promised the strength of God in us. God dwells, in you. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God's strength, is in you. God does not give us that so that we will give in to our weaknesses, but so that we can fight them.
Stop trying to fight your battles: let God fight them for you. Don't tell God you have problems, tell your problems that you have GOD. Nothing in this world can stop Him. You are the weak, failing person you've always been. But you are not alone anymore, you have God on your side!
That sin you want to give in to? It is nothing to God's wonders. The pleasure that sin can bring you now, is absolutely nothing in comparison to the bliss that will be yours in heaven.
So, why keep fighting? I keep saying that we've been promised something. Let me enlighten you to what that promise is: we are promised an eternity of perfection, holiness, pureness... we are promised to be as Christ is: Sinless.
For I consider that the sufferings we have now are nothing to the great glory that will be revealed to us. - Romans 8:18
Or the more modern translation: The pain that you've been feeling, can't compare to the joy that's coming.
The more pain, suffering, temptation, sin, that you go through now, will only make your joy in heaven the greater!
There is one who believes in you. He has not given up on you. Don't give up on yourself when you have someone infinitely better then yourself who believes in you, who won't give up on you, and who will help you through it. He wants you to have the fullest joy possible when you come to be with Him for eternity.
In this moment, you may be beaten down, and ready to give up. But for great things to happen inside of you, time needs to pass. It is true, you will continue to struggle, and the struggles may get harder. But for you to become the best you can be, you have to let God work inside of you.
The thing we need to remember as we go along our paths, is that it's not for this life that we're living. This is only temporary. The reason that we live, is to go to a better place.
We were not made for this world, but we must go through this one to be ready for what is yet to come.
This world is temporary, but how you deal with it's troubles, that is eternal. Think to the future, and where you will be then. Don't get bogged down in the now, let God lift you out of it!
The best is yet to come.
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This song by Tenth Avenue North has helped me SO much. Listen to it. I mean, listen to the words. Really understand what is being said here...
Love in Christ,
~Bekah
P.S. To give proper credit, this post was inspired by this post, check it out! :)
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