There is no greater joy I have found than in the discovery that I can do nothing of myself, that I am helpless, hopeless, and desperate apart from the cross of Christ.

The Bible says that the law, God’s list of requirements, is meant to drive us to despair; it is meant to show us that we are sinful and in need of a savior. Unfortunatley, many professing Christians stop there. They get driven to despair by the law and then try to do things they cannot do apart from the sancifying work in them. They see Jesus as an ideal rather than a necessity. They profess to believe in Christ and the Bible and yet they live out of their own strength and try to slay sin in their life in their own strength. They see what they ought to be, and then find that no matter how hard they try, they cannot possibly be that, and they are driven to despair time and time again (Romans 7).

God never intended for us to be “good people” following a set of rules. What He intended and intends is that we be people who have Christ living in us, people regenerated and reborn into the likeness of His Son, people living in the closest relationship possible with Him (“ That they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you,” John 17:21). Jesus alive and walking this earth is not just someone to look upto, but the person we will become like when we allow Him to work in us, when we abide in Him and He abides in us through the Holky Spirit. We can do nothing apart from Christ. Nothing. And when that revelation hits you like it has been hitting me, there is such joy that comes. Because we can do nothing. We are helpless, hopeless, desperate, damned…but glory to God because Jesus took everything we could not do and made it possible for us to be like Him! He died and rose again to give us a new nature, to work in us until we abide in Him fully and walk as He walked. We are here to commune with the Father and be coworkers with Christ, to crucify our flesh and relate more and more to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus says over and over again in the gospels to ask the Father for things, “In My name”. Do you know what it means to ask for something in Jesus’ name?! It means that I recognize that I am without something, that I need something and that I have no other way of receiving it than through Jesus Christ. Asking the Father for something in Jesus’ name does not mean we tack a few words on the end of our prayers as magic words and suddenly God hears us (He hears us anyway; He’s looking at our hearts), but that we understand that we cannot do anything at all out of our own power to get what we need, and that we cannot work for what we need or convince God to give it to us, that we recognize our desperate state, and with joy understand that in Jesus is everything we need. ”

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5

I must first recognize that I lack wisdom, and then I may ask God, who gives generously and without reproach.

Asking for something in Jesus’ name means I know my nature apart from Jesus, that I know what Jesus died to give me (eternal life, life to the full) and I know the character of God: that He is a good Father and delights to give me good gifts, and that there is nothing I can do to convince Him to give me anything. Praying in Jesus’ name is praying a desperate prayer with great joy in knowing that because of who Jesus is, I am heard.

There is no greater joy than to discover that I am completely destitute on my own, and that in Jesus there is life, that everything I have is from Him, just as everything He had on this earth was given to Him by the Father. I am no longer making excuses for my sin, but rather understanding that Jesus came to change my nature, to birth Himself in me. I am beginning to understand that when I am driven to despair by some sin in my life, I can rejoice because in that moment, I understand what I need Jesus to be in me. And though I wrestle in my flesh at times because I do not understand, the love of God is stronger than DEATH, and my Spirit is alive through Him.

Praise God. 

2:43 pm  •  6 October 2011  •  36 notes