As we progress in the Christian life, we begin to notice certain sinful areas of our life that we can’t seem to conquer. We all have our own weaknesses and no matter how hard we try, we continue to fail. We may be able to control our surface behavior, but inside we still feel the impulse to sin.
Earlier in our Christian life, we were able to overcome many of our sins just by actively resisting temptation and receiving God’s strength through the five channels of growth. But now we are starting to realize that our sins are powered by deep desires, attitudes, and beliefs that we can’t control or change. And our own special areas of weakness are constantly reminding us of this. They are like a spotlight on our old nature.
Rejoice! Now we are discovering the end of ourself. We have come to the end of the character God has given us so far. We are at the limits of how much we can change ourselves by actively participating with God. At this point we do not have the power to “change ourselves” anymore. Our deepest desires and attitudes need to change, but we are not equipped to do this. We are like a person trying to use a shovel to dig for oil thousands of feet underground. Only God has the spiritual power to change us deep inside. Only He can dig down and do the actual work required.
Now we need to go through a big change in the way we view spiritual growth. We will learn that deeper growth only comes when we are much less active in changing ourselves and instead take a more passive, humble posture before God and let Him do the change—without our interference. Now we surrender more fully; we tell Him we can’t do it and we ask Him to do it.
