Carrot dangling in front

One sobering fact about life is that sincerity is not enough. We must know the truth first and follow it sincerely (Jn.8:32). Many Christians sincerely seek victory over sin in their life and becoming like Jesus, but even after many years of knowing Jesus as Saviour they are still defeated. They have sincerely asked God to give them victory and believed that He will grant it to them (Ro.6:14). They have recognised that they cannot achieve it by their own strength, and they sincerely expect God to give it to them. But years have gone by, and many of them still keep holding on their expectation that one of these days God will grant it. They are waiting and waiting for their 'breakthrough' or a mighty work of God that will set them free.

They hold on to verses such as, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Ph.1:6) and "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2Co.3:18). They are sincerely confused thinking about why no real transformation is happening in their lives. Just think, if it was up to the Holy Spirit, all of us would have become like Jesus long ago! No, we cannot blame Him.

The truth they have missed is that while God does many things for us for our salvation, there are things we ought to do from our side too. We have not been doing them properly, and that is the reason for our condition. It is not even that we did not have faith for victory. So, we must understand what we need to do from our side and then do that, and stop waiting passively for God. God works in our heart through the Spirit to give us both the inclination and the power to do His will, but then we are the ones to actually do His will in our practical life (Ph.2:12,13). We can see what will happen if we just sit and wait for God to transform us by Himself, while we do not make the choice to deny ourselves and actually do His will every moment of our life.

God wants to give us victory and transform us into His nature. But in order to experience that, we must choose to deny our sinful desires and then do His will in practical ways (Ro.6:12-14). It is by pleasing ourselves and disobeying God to get pleasure that we sin against God. To experience salvation, we must do the opposite, deny ourselves in order to obey God.

Jesus made it very clear that this was the only way anyone could follow Him as a disciple (Lk.9:23). This is the way He Himself showed us with His own life. Look around at the kind of preaching that hides this truth and proclaims all God's promises, how He loves us, how He has great plans for us, how He will give us a great breakthrough, how He will open the windows of heaven and pour out His blessings on us, etc. This is pleasant for our ears, but they will be like carrots always just out of our reach.