"Determination"

"I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me." (Psalms 119:30)

  There is a very serious need that we must have, whether we are new to this experience in Christ, or if we have been saved for most of our adult life; we must be determined to follow Jesus! This is what it means to pick up our cross and follow the Lord; because there are going to be times when feel like quitting, there are going to days that make us overwhelmed by our failures, and no matter how strong we might think we are, we are never as strong as we should be or think we are. The way of truth is laid out for us in 1 John 1:5-10, where John tells us the simple facts of what we should be based upon what we are, and that what we should be, more than anything else, is cleansed by the blood of Christ! There is no other way for us to accept our condition, than to know we are nothing without Christ. If there are things that we need to confess, then with a determined heart, we need to confess them and be made clean; there is simply no other way to get around it. Picking up our cross is not about doing this or that to put burdens upon our lives; it's about dying to ourselves and letting Christ live in us. As much as I would like to be able to punch a clock or tally up the things I might do as cross bearing acts or points towards my salvation, it just does not work the way we might think. If you look at the parable of the sheep and goats, the goats were the ones that thought they earned their rewards, and sheep had served without expecting anything in return, they just did it because it was the right thing to do. The point about determination is not that of doing all that we can do, it is about letting the Lord do in us all that He wants to do. This verse reminds me very much of James 2:14-26, because it is one thing to choose to follow Christ, but it is altogether different when let Christ lead us and guide us. If we are truly following Christ, then there is going to be fruit, naturally grown fruit. Amazing how that works, there is no need to waste a whole lot of effort on doing the Lord's work, but there sure is a lot of effort that seems to go into dying to ourselves...

"So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have a taste of the Lord's kindness." (1 Peter 2:1-3) NLT