Evident Life

We actually need to be 'guided out of sin', don't we? It is as though we need absolutely NO instruction in how to sin, but try to stop that sin that has become a habitual thing in our lives, and we need some help! The more we 'try' to live without that sin's influence or pull in our lives, the more it keeps coming back. The thing we need most is God's help - a guided departure from one way of living and entrance into a new way.

Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments. If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived. (I John 2:3-6)

Keeping his commandments seems like a rather general instruction, does it not? A life that matches our words is pretty much the goal, yet we find the ability to live in such a way may be a little elusive at times. We believe his commandments to be right. We attest to wanting to live according to his instructions. We form some specific actions aimed at getting us to the point we no longer pursue certain courses of action. Then life happens and we face sin's influence head on.

God's Word is all well and good, until it directs us to change a particular course of action, habit, or way of thinking. At some point, though, we need to lay down our resistance to change and embrace God's guidance into that changed life. We won't really be happy with ourselves until we do! We can resist change for only so long. The commandments of God, his living Word in the form of his Holy Spirit within us begin to convict us. Our conscience is even working against our desire to live one way when we know there is an entirely different way God wants us to live.

What we do next matters. We can embrace his instructions, lean into the help of the Holy Spirit within, and learn to live differently, or we can continue in the miserable 'up and down' life of attempting to deal with our sinful self all on our own terms. The choice seems clear to me, how about you? Intimacy with God really does change the way we live. There should be evidence of love, with actions reflecting the directions God gives us. Just sayin!