Resistance

Once you see that God is completely in control and nothing, NOTHING, is outside of His sovereignty, you begin to see how deep our Resistance goes.

Oh, you could like most, just ignore it and hold to the ideology of our "independence", but if you do, faith in Him stagnates.

It just does. The scary part is that faith can still grow, but in a completely wrong direction. To deny God's true power, you must minimize Him and eventually change Him into something He is not. The question arises..."Who then do you really worship?"

This poses a question that is disturbing, is salvation possible if the "believer" does not trust THE real God, but instead some imaginary variation of Him.

Yes, God is gracious, but would you say that those who worship Allah go to heaven? Where does God draw the line?

HE does draw that line. He is the One who set up the rules. He is the One who made the place. He is the One who created the Why. Every actual Christian must agree to that.

So, where is the line? If those who worship Allah, Krishna, Buddha, and any number of deities people believe in, don't get salvation or eternal life, then why would someone who makes God, the Father, into something He is not?

Where is the difference?

Where is the line?

"Only those whose names are written in the book of life."

That is the line.

It is not what YOU want it to be. Any moving of the goal posts is not relevant.

"But my mom was a good person!"

Ah, but so are many who reject God's stated means of acceptance...Jesus who is called Christ. Any other gate, any other door, any other goal post...misses the mark.

Why the narrow window?

Why the great difficulty in life to see it?

Why, with His absolute control, is it impossible to be saved?

I don't know the why for the Plan, but I do see why we struggle with it.

I have said many times that our struggle is straight from the Garden. It began with that simple lie, "if you eat this, you will become like God". Ascending, and becoming like God...in control.

That is the lie and why we resist His rule. It is simply because WE want to rule.

"I make my own choices!"

"I am my own person!"

"I have my own FREEwill!"

No, you don't.

If you trust God, not you, you must know God. You must believe He is not only in control, but worthy of it!

This is the rub, if you don't trust God, you don't think He is good enough to be in charge, or you don't know He is strong enough to handle it. Either way, if that is so, you MUST step up and "handle it" yourself.

"I will"

"I will be free"

Look, scripture is rather clear about the line. If it IS really true, which I have no doubt that it is, Jesus IS God, and the ONLY means ANYBODY gets accepted by God, and given an eternal existence after this "proving ground".

If you believe in Him, then you have crossed the line. If you have changed Him into something else, you may believe "with all your heart", but like the Pharisees...you are wrong.

I know this is hard. It is impossible even. You cannot come to Jesus unless God, the Father, does it!

He chooses.

If He chose you, you will see who Jesus is. You will struggle as you grow into a real relationship with Him. That IS all part of His plan.

As His child EVERTHING is set to make you grow into that deeper "knowing" of Him...EVERYTHING.

Every pain, every sorrow, every difficulty, every enemy, every disease, every bit of everything down to the most microscopic detail has one purpose... to drive you into a deeper knowledge, understanding and acceptance of who and what Jesus Christ really is.

God, in charge of every molecule, measure, meaning, and tick of a clock, is using all of it to break down your resistance until every cell says, "your will be done, not mine".

No, I don't want to hurt. Who does? Yet, because of my hurt, paired with my knowledge of who He really is, I have to fight with my own desire to resist. My own deep-seated struggle to win or just survive. The fight only ends when I submit or surrender to His authority over ALL things including me.

This is what faith really is.

It is faith IN Him.

He is in control.

He is good.

He absolutely knows what He is doing.

Pain, frustration, fear, failure, and every bad thing He throws your way has a powerful purpose.

You see, in trusting Him, you have to realize one very important thing...you are not the one being tested.

He IS.

You are HIS work after all...and He doesn't make mistakes.