Start, then finish well

 How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? (Galatians 3:3)

The question at hand - can we keep the Law and be made righteous? All our efforts to be 'good' might abound, but we are only made right with God through Christ Jesus. We start well - "God help me to change this thing in my life." Then we get our own ideas about how we will change that thing and go our own way. The issue isn't that God won't help us - it is that we won't let him help us as he wants to help. We have our own ideas on how he will help. Whenever he asks for a step or two that fall outside of those ideas, we take back control.

Rarely does God do things as we imagined he would. He will ask for a step of obedient faith that will challenge what we have been doing. when he does, how will we approach that step? That's what really matters - the obedience isn't condition - if we feel like it, we do it. It isn't situational, either - if all the stars align, we go for it. It is faith-based - we don't see it, but we trust him that whatever steps he asks us to take will lead to the change we so desperately desire and need. 

After starting - it implies we made a start. Obedience is often started well but then fizzles out somewhere down the line. Whenever we mix faith with 'belief' we can get bogged down. Sometimes God asks us to lay down what we 'believe' to take on what he will reveal to us. We must start, then we must finish. It isn't just us going the distance, we must allow him to challenge what we believe so we are not carrying any false beliefs into the place he wants us to go with him.

Perfection is something best accomplished in stages. God doesn't go after everything all at once in our lives. His focus will be directed toward one change at a time. As the steps of obedient faith are taken, each stage completed adds to what we will need to go into the next stage of growth or change. Remember - with God, it is always line upon line, precept upon precept. Take a step in total obedience and he will prepare your heart to take the next. Just sayin!