Trying to be right with God by doing the right things… Oh, what a mistake! This way of living produces guilt, shame, fear, and failure. Both Jesus and Apostle Paul’s harshest words were directed at those promoting living by the law of Moses. Consider these riveting words from the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul.

Gal 5:3-5 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. 5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.

All of us should want to live right, but how we accomplish this most daunting task should be carefully scrutinized by an eye trained by the new covenant. Our effort to be right with God produces a life of ever-increasing compromise; while resting, by faith in God’s work within us, produces ever-increasing Christ-likeness.

Heb 10:14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Phil 1:6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Phil 2:13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure.

God’s work within you operates when you are out of control, and he is in control. The righteousness God requires is only tapped into when we relinquish our efforts to be right with God and fully receive that we are already right with him by faith in the blood of Jesus. What a life of freedom this produces! What a life of victory and purpose is attained through this rest.

I am praying over your life today that this revelation of God’s grace will be yours. May this concept of letting go of your effort to be right with God and receiving and waiting upon God’s work within you be…

YOUR WAY OF LIFE