Miserable Failures

And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the ordinances, and all the people answered with one voice, and said, "all the words which the LORD hath said will we do.?
(Exodus 24:3 KJV)


   The children of Israel had the best of intentions with their promise of obedience.  Someone has said, "Hell is paved with good intentions."

   We are no different than the people of Israel.  We make all kinds of promises beginning on New Year's Eve only to break all of them by February 1st.  We went on a diet and joined the local gym.  Cigarettes were tossed and vulgar language cast aside, meditations were faithfully kept, and prayers uttered.  Man, we were on a roll!  Then one by one, they all disappeared.  What happened?  Why couldn't we sustain the momentum?  Why the procrastination?  Why did we fail?

   The Bible tells us that we fail because we are failures.  We fall because we posses a fallen sinful nature.  We have good intentions to do what is right, but something always interferes.  That something is our sinful flesh.  While the heart has been redeemed, the flesh has not.  A war is going on within us.  The Bible calls it -- the flesh against the spirit.  (Galatians 5:16)

   That's the bad news.  The good news is that God knows our weaknesses.  The Bible says, "For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust."  (Psalm 103:14)

   The worst part of all this is that we are broken and can't begin to fix ourselves.  No amount of righteous works can solve our problem.  There is no self solution.  Self cannot redeem itself.  How then are we going to solve our dilemma?  How can we make the changes necessary to get on the right side of God?

   Are you seeking a change in your life?  Are you still struggling through the energy of the flesh to please God and miserably failing?  You may as well admit that you can't please God through self-effort.  Do you want to know the solution?

   Release control of your out-of-control life into the outstretched hands of Jesus on the cross.  Give up your self-efforts and resolve to allow Christ to change you permanently from the inside-out

   Thought for the Day:  God is in the life changing business.