People sometimes ask me “Is it difficult to live the Christian life?”  Actually it’s impossible – apart from the enabling grace of God.  Jesus presents an amazing set of standards for those in the kingdom of God – just take a look at the Sermon on the Mount.  Realize however that His commandment is your enablement.  As you partner with God He is transforming you into the likeness of Jesus.  What seems impossible with men is possible with God.

You must realize that living the Christian life is a series of moral choices as you put off the old and put on the new.  The Apostle Paul provides a sound strategy as you make wise moral choices,

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,   (2 Corinthians 4:5)

Christians are involved in warfare as their righteous nature encounters the world system.  It is only as you destroy the speculations against God and you determine to take every thought captive to Christ that you can win the battle.  Oswald Chambers describes this conflict,

The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It is accomplished only through a series of moral choices.  God does not make us holy in the sense that He makes our character holy. He makes us holy in the sense that He has made us innocent before Him. And then we have to turn that innocence into holy character through the moral choices we make. These choices are continually opposed and hostile to the things of our natural life which have become so deeply entrenched— the very things that raise themselves up as fortified barriers “against the knowledge of God.” We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory.  (My Utmost for His Highest, September 8).

What are some challenging moral choices you’re facing?