God wants us to address and deal with our mess. Some of us are accepting our condition, at times with a fancy diagnosis attached to it. We have a form of Godliness, but surely denying God’s power to transform us (2 Timothy 3:5) We walked around in our same familiar sins; they are no longer struggles, is just who we are… right? Let me start by echoing Jesus’ word as part of his Sermon of the Mount’s teachings,

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20 (NIV)

This may sound legalistic to you, but these are the words of Jesus. Many of us believers want to have the cake and eat to. We want to enjoy the blessings of God while, in the name of God’s mercy, love and grace, never deal with our mess. So, we embrace the vomit zone Jesus described in Revelation 3:15-16 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (NIV) Ouch!

What is the point of this series? Work on yourself! You are not alone, Jesus left us His Spirit as our Helper (John 14:26) That same Spirit has given us spiritual gifts for the edification of the Body (I Corinthians 12). We are in a process; we are being build up, we are supposed to be maturing and growing (2 Peter 3:18) Look at the way Paul describes this process,

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;¹² For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:¹³Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:¹⁴ That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;¹⁵ But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:¹⁶ From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:11-16 (NIV)

As you can see, we are a work in progress, with emphasis on progress. We should be changing, we should be in the process of becoming better sons and daughters, better husbands and wives, better fathers and mothers, better citizens on this earth, greater character, greater integrity, and better friends. But, in many instances, that is not the case, why, because we believe the lie that God accepts us the way we are. Failing to understand that we are saved Only through Jesus, that if we do not drop dead is because of his grace and mercy. Beloved God has given us the Holy Ghost to transform us. But there is a catch… there is an attitude that we all as believer, MUST adapt… that is what is missing.

To be continued…