Many feel they cannot live the life expected of a Christian. Are you filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? What if you found the secret to living as Jesus taught?

Isaiah 59:2 “ It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” Before salvation we were separated from God. We were dead spiritually because of our sins. The Holy Spirit convicted us and we realized that we were a sinner. We then confessed our sins and were willing to repent so that we could have the Holy Spirit come into our lives and change our direction. Christ atoned for our sins and we were given a new life, in Christ, to live as a different person. Our old person and nature was to die out to our self-centeredness and selfishness and surrender to the Holy Spirit within us.

We became confident that we were going to heaven but we still were living in a world that promotes sin. Even though we had a new nature and a new attitude, we continued to want to do many things the world says was okay to do but we knew from Scripture that they were wrong. This is what we must continually deal with. We must ask ourselves: How did Jesus deal with it?

Our struggles living a Christian life can lessen when we realize that the Holy Spirit comes into our lives to help us live as Christ lived. We learn this in Galatians 2:20 – “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” If the Spirit of Christ lives in us we must allow Him to live through us. This is what it means to surrender to our self-centered nature.

John 3:34 – “For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit.” Christ was given the Spirit without limit. I believe the more we live a Christian life, (it is not about what we must do), but the willingness to allow Christ to work through us; and the more we allow the Spirit to control, the greater Spiritual power we will have. We shall then be filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?

How difficult it is for many to give up control and let Christ work in and through them. Is our mind our master or our servant? The Holy Spirit is trying to make our minds our servants. If we do, we will think morally and make moral decisions. Our mind determines our attitudes. We can choose to be positive or negative. If our mind is our servant, we will have a servant’s heart and a heart that is forgiving and loving. If our mind remains our master, we will find living a Christian life too often miserable.

We were created to worship God. However, we can replace God with idols. Often Christians make other people their model and idol. That created need to worship is to make someone as our model for living. Who do we chose? Have we chosen Christ and do we honor Him? Sin is to dishonor as in the Ten Commandments. We are to honor God and our parents and not to, is a sin. In fact, our future depends on whom we honor.

Struggles living a Christian life come when we are unwilling to allow Christ to live through us. It results often, in an unwillingness to trust God. It can also be a lack of faith that God will keep His promises. We must believe that God wants what is best for us. Where is God in our priorities? If He is not first, we have not died out to self and were never able to give up control to the Holy Spirit who is in us to help guide us.

I John 3:9 – 10 – “Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.”