Sin is the biggest thing that impairs our relationship with God. We want God to fill us and answer our prayers, but we also often want to maintain the ability to live our lives on our terms. It just doesn’t work that way. We can (and will!) still sin as Christians. But the Bible speaks of a deeper walk with God (one in which we are filled with his Holy Spirit) that we forfeit when we walk in willful disobedience (Matt. 5:8, John 14:21, 1 John 3:21-22, Psalm 66:18, Isaiah 59:2). Bottom line: being willfully disobedient takes us out of the river, robbing us of our peace and joy (sin is bondage to us! See Romans 6:16), and leaving us open to the discipline of God, as he seeks to put us back on the right path. 

It has been said that “Perfect obedience would be perfect happiness, if only we had perfect confidence in the power we were obeying.” It may be that you do not trust that God’s way will bring you life. Maybe it feels like God is asking you to give up too much. Maybe there is a sin that you can’t see living without (or being able to give up). But we have spent the last 4 weeks looking at all that God offers to us! He loves us and desires an intimacy of relationship with us characterized by his presence, love and power for us and for the people all around us! Can we not trust the loving heart of that Father?

But perhaps the thought of living in daily obedience to God is overwhelming to you, or feels like a “bondage” of a different sort! I mean, let’s be honest, there is a long list of “do’s” and “don’ts” in just the one passage of scripture from Ephesians that we looked at above! So, how do we attempt this seemingly impossible task? The passage from Romans above helps us understand what this looks like.

We have talked about “yielding” to God many times in this 5-week study (in fact the “yielding” principle is embedded in our Personal Worship daily). This speaks of a daily surrender (or offering of yourself) to God, as one who is no longer under the dominion or power of sin and who is willing to submit to all that God desires in their lives. This is one of the ways we empty ourselves (see week 1) as we seek to then be filled with the Spirit. When we offer our whole hearts to God in this way, we are then trusting that he will come and empower this obedience (that we would be unable to accomplish on our own), as we seek to work it out during our day! It is a surrendered, submissive heart that he comes and fills!

But, before we go, what do we do with those things that have defeated us in the past, like an addiction, or some hurt or offense that feels impossible to let go of, chronic anger, or some other besetting sin? Well, first, we stop believing that they are too much for us! That is a lie of the enemy! With God, all things are possible! Next, we confess that sin to another believer. There is power in confessing our sins to one another. James 5:16 tells us that, in confessing to and praying for each other, we will be healed. We are only as sick as our secrets and our secret sins keep us in the darkness with them. Finally, we submit to God as outlined above and the devil has to flee. (James 4:7) Brothers and sisters, there is victory in Jesus! Let us trust that he will get us there!