One of the lessons I learned as I entered my 20’s is that God does not expect you to be perfect. We were born in sin, our flesh is sinful, and in this life we live on earth, sadly there is no way of completely separating ourselves from our sinful nature. God is aware of this, which is one of the many reasons he sent his Son to die for us. It is also one of the reasons the Lord makes it very clear that we cannot live this life without him.
So, we need to be realistic with the expectations we put on ourselves. We cannot expect ourselves to become more like Christ if we spend little to no time with him. We must make time to pray, we must make time to worship and we must make time to be in the Bible. It’s definitely not easy with all of the demands and responsibilities that this modern life comes with, but it must be made a top priority.
One of the lessons I learned more recently is that you can’t train your flesh. It’s not enough to wait to read the Bible when we “feel like it”. Our feelings as human beings are tied to our flesh, and they are not a reliable source to solely lean on when it comes to matters of the Lord and growing in Christ. How we feel on a day-to-day basis is influenced by so many things, unfortunately things that the devil can easily manipulate, which is why regardless of how we feel, we must put our flesh to death and put our spiritual needs above it.
Following Christ will not always feel comfortable, and it will not always be convenient. There will be days when we don’t feel like praying, reading our Bible or worshipping, but those are not the days when we should neglect our spiritual needs. In fact, those can be the very days when we need God the most.
Our walk with Christ cannot be based solely on how we feel. We have to make the decision to seek him even when our flesh tells us that we don’t want to.
Becoming more like Christ is a process. We are not going to get everything right, and God does not expect us to. But we should still desire to grow, to become more like him and to surrender the parts of ourselves that are not aligned with his will. We cannot do this by relying on ourselves. We need him.
So, even when you don’t feel like it, pray. Even when you don’t feel like it, open your Bible. Even when you don’t feel like it, worship.
Because if we want to become more like Christ, we have to spend time with Christ.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for reminding us that we don’t have to walk this journey alone. Help us to surrender our flesh, our feelings and our own desires to you. Give us the discipline to seek you even when we don’t feel like it, and give us the desire to know you more deeply. Transform our hearts, renew our minds and help us become more like Christ each day. Amen.
Scriptures of Encouragement
Galatians 5:24
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
1 Timothy 4:7–8
Train yourself to be godly.
SL