Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

• Galatians 2:20-21

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

• Philippians 2:12-13

“We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves or sanctify ourselves; God only can do that; but God does not give us good habits. He does not give us character, He does not make us walk aright; we must do all that. We have to work out what God has worked in (Philippians 2:12-13). Many of us lose out spiritually, not because the devil attacks us, but because we are stupidly ignorant of the way God has made us. Remember, the devil did not make the human body; he may have tampered with it, but the human body was created by God, and its constitution after we are saved remains the same as before. For instance, we are not born with a ready-made habit of dressing ourselves; we have to form that habit. Apply it spiritually-when we are born again, God does not give us a fully fledged series of holy habits, we have to make them; and the forming of habits on the basis of God’s supernatural work in our souls is the education of our spiritual life.
“Many of us refuse to do it; we are lazy and we frustrate the grace of God.”

• Oswald Chambers, Daily Thoughts for Disciples (December 9, from Grow Up into Him)

We often get the roles mixed up.  Does God want us to spread the Gospel?  Yes, He does, but after all our preparation, it is still the Holy Spirit that guides our words.  It is still the Holy Spirit working on the person we are talking to or all our talk is for naught.  It is God who saves in the end.  Did we have something to do with it?  Yes, but the important part was that we were there so that God could do the rest.

Oswald Chambers speaks of sanctification here. So, once we are saved, it is God that had done the saving.  It is God, as the Great Sculptor who chips away pieces of us that are not like Jesus so that we can be like Jesus in the end.

But God can be thwarted in His attempt to make us more like Jesus due to our bad habits.

We have a role to play.  In witnessing, we study Scriptures to prepare.  We pray.  We have faith.  And we open our mouth to talk to people, but God does all the heavy lifting.

In our sanctification, we have to flee from bad habits.  We have to avoid places and people where our resistance to temptation is low.  And when we have an addictive personality, there are certain situations that we must avoid.  I spoke to my Sunday school class that if a certain television show gives you thoughts that are less than productive, put a parental control against the program.  Sure, you have to use a password, but if you are as bad as I am in remembering passwords, you’ll never watch that television show again.  And if you do, you will know that it was intentional.

So, while we avoid, blockade, or flee temptation, it is still God that gives us the strength, and it is only God that makes us a little more like Jesus.

At times, I feel that I spin my wheels.  But then I see where I’ve been, and in spite of my faults, God has moved me along the path.

The key is that you eventually get what your heart desires.  And the only thing that you can take with you is more of Jesus.  Desire Him.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.