The best verse . . .

Learning the secret of a victorious Christian life is never “try harder” but when I became a believer in Jesus Christ, I thought that was the way to do it. My first “brick wall” came when I became aware that I screamed at my children. I wanted to stop and tried with all my might. After months of effort with no success, I prayed and told God that I didn’t like what I was doing. It was sinful, but I couldn’t seem to stop. After that prayer, I gave up trying. In a few weeks, I noticed that I wasn’t doing it anymore.

That was the first lesson. I’ve had many concerning the failure of “try harder” and am convinced I’ve spiritual Alzheimer’s! I seem to need to learn it over and over. Yet, I also am convinced that if I only had one verse by which to live my Christian life, I would pick this one:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

God does what I cannot do. The forgiveness part is wonderful and takes the weight of sin away, but the cleansing is amazing. When I acknowledge my sin, He does something in my attitude or changes the way I think. Actually, I’m not sure how it works. I just know that the things that I hate, but couldn’t seem to stop, begin to go away.

As today’s devotional reading says, confession of sin doesn’t take place only at salvation. It continues, as faith continues, throughout my life. Being willing to confess sin is part of the pattern of life that characterizes every Christian. Yes, this pattern also includes love, separation from the world, instruction by the Holy Spirit and a host of other things, but if I am not loving, or doing anything that is outside His will, trying harder will not make it happen. Confession is the key. As soon as I tell God that I have done the wrong thing, or failed to do the right thing, He gets to work.

Of course there are varying degrees of confession. Sometimes I confess just the incident. That is, if I spoke harshly, I confessed that (to both God and the person on the receiving end). However, speaking harshly or other sinful actions are often symptoms. Under them are deeper motivations such as lack of love, selfishness, a mean spirit, and so on. I’m thinking that is why I find myself doing the same thing again — it is because I never made as full a confession as I should and fail to get to the root of it.

However, trying harder will not work. It serves only to make me a fake. If I’ve a bad attitude and determine to button my lip, that attitude comes out eventually. If I am not interested in people and try to feign interest, my yawn (at the least) will betray me. God wants me to tell Him that I am not in the right frame of mind, or that I am not loving others, or whatever it is, and then ask Him to forgive and cleanse me. He will fill me with the Holy Spirit who freely gives His fruit of love, joy, peace, etc. to those who need it.

Actually, on second thought, there is one place in the Christian life for trying harder. I need to try harder to see and confess my sin, to keep short accounts with God. This favorite verse is my constant reminder that for me to be like Jesus, I must remember that I could not save myself from the penalty of sin nor can I save myself from its power. He is the Savior, and my efforts are useless without Him doing the work.