Latest / Your Daily Grace / Grace on Trial - Week 3 - Identity Concerns

Transcript

Grace on Trial - Week 3 - Identity Concerns · Your Daily Grace

• 0:01
  Welcome to your daily grace. By Timothy Wilder Grace on trial week 3 identity concerns accusation 16 does Grace ignore ongoing sin struggles? Part 1 one of the most discouraging questions a believer can ask is, if grace is true, why am I still such a mess? Sometimes I've asked that question more than once throughout my Christian life, and even after coming to a clear understanding of the gospel, I often wondered why certain struggles remained for me. Anger was one of them. I had a temper for most of my life. When I began hearing about grace, identity in Christ and the new creation, I expected some things to change quickly. In fairness, some things did, yet others seemed stubbornly resistant to my timetable. I remember wondering what many believers eventually wonder in if God has made me new, why am I still fighting old battles? If grace is really working, why do some struggles feel so familiar? The longer I followed Christ, the more I began measuring God's work by the wrong standard. I assumed that real transformation meant the battle would disappear.
• 1:23
  When the battle remained, I questioned the transformation.
• 1:28
  Romans 7 challenged that assumption.
• 1:31
  Paul writes, for what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do.
• 1:37
  Romans 7:15 NKJV I've always appreciated how honest those words are.
• 1:46
  Paul is not describing someone who is comfortable with sin. He is describing someone who is frustrated by it. There is a tension between what he desires and what he experiences. He wants one thing and finds himself struggling against another.
• 2:03
  Many believers know exactly what that feels like.
• 2:07
  In fact, the struggle itself tells us something important.
• 2:12
  People who are completely indifferent to sin rarely wrestle with it. Conflict often reveals the presence of competing desires.
• 2:22
  There is a reason, Paul writes in Galatians, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another.
• 2:33
  Galatians 5:17 NKJV notice how realistic that description is. Paul does not portray the Christian life as a complete absence of conflict. He describes an ongoing battle.
• 2:47
  For years I assumed that mature believers eventually reached a place where these struggles faded into the background experience.
• 2:58
  Scripture and conversations with other Christians gradually convinced me otherwise.
• 3:04
  Spiritual growth is not always measured by the absence of struggle. Sometimes it is revealed by a growing awareness of the struggle and a deeper dependence upon Christ within it. That is where Psalm 103 has become especially meaningful to me.
• 3:24
  Speaking of God, the psalmist writes, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.
• 3:30
  Psalm 103:14 NKJ what a comforting thought. God is not surprised by our weaknesses. He is not shocked by the battles we face. He understands our limitations far better than we do. The God who called us to himself already knew everything about us before he extended his grace to us.
• 3:52
  Looking back, I think one of my mistakes was expecting transformation to happen according to my schedule.
• 4:00
  God's work in our lives is often deeper, slower and more patient than we would prefer.
• 4:07
  Grace does not ignore our struggles.
• 4:10
  Grace meets us in the middle of them. The battle is real. The frustration is real. The setbacks are real. None of those things mean God has abandoned his work in us.
• 4:23
  Sometimes the very fact that we are struggling is evidence that he has not. Have you ever mistaken the presence of a struggle for the absence of God's work in your life?
• 4:36
  Thank you for being part of our community. If these posts are helping you grow in your understanding of God's grace, we invite you to follow this page and engage with the content.
• 4:49
  Your likes, comments and shares help bring these biblical truths to others who may be searching for the same encouragement.