When it comes to the life that is available to us through Jesus it is something that we have to learn and put effort in. Just because we have accepted Jesus into our hearts doesn’t mean that life suddenly changes on its own. Yes we may be able to see things differently and have new desires in our heart, but doing things differently is something that we have to learn and work at. When we accept Jesus we become partners with him. He will give us new ideas and desires, but we have to take the action. He will give us the strength and knowledge, but we have to put it into practice.

Sometimes it won’t be easy to do what we need to do but it is possible because we do not have to lean only on our own strength. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to help us muster through the hardest of things. We have the choice to stick to it instead of giving into our thoughts, feelings, and want to’s. It helps me to know that anything God puts on my heart to do is what is in the best interest of me even when it doesn’t seem that way in the moment. To know that I will have peace and joy if I comply with Him and do as he says helps me to want what he wants more than what I want (if that makes any sense). And sometimes we simply have to want something different more than we want to stay the same..

I have had times when I would get mad at myself for giving into the temptations of doing something that I wanted to stop doing. At first the enemy used that to bring guilt into my heart. Once the guilt came it became even harder to resist the temptations and I would have thoughts about God being mad at or not approving of me. But once I learned that the guilt was an attack from the enemy and that God would always love me I began to fight against the enemy and for myself. I used the anger as determination to stick with it until I had victory. I did a lot of pep talking to myself. Instead of saying, “I know I shouldn’t _______ but I can’t help it” I would say, “I don’t have to _________ because I can choose to ________ and not have to deal with the consequences and I choose to do better.” I had to remind myself that I was the one that was hurting myself by what I was choosing to do. Sometimes I would have to get stern with myself and say, “girl, you are not stupid or weak or dumb, you know dang on well that you can do better but you are choosing not to. You can’t blame anyone but yourself for the dissatisfaction that you have with your life because you’re the one that has done it to yourself.” We got to be honest with ourselves about ourselves or we will never see the change that we want to see.

Jesus does have a great life available for us. Life is definitely much better with him because he shows us what to do to have a good life. He gives us wisdom and knowledge to know what is right and wrong for us. He gives us power and strength that we wouldn’t otherwise have. And he gives us direction and counsel. But he also requires us to work with him. If we choose to work with Him and do our part in our partnership with him we will never go wrong. Even if it takes 20yrs to completely make a change he will be right there giving us direction as long as we never give up. Because he will never give up on us. He never said it would be easy but He did say that it is possible.

Maybe you need to get stern with yourself like I did and get determined to not let the enemy have control of you or your life any longer. Or maybe you just need to summit to God’s way instead of your own desires. Whatever it is that you need to do, it is possible if you lean on Jesus for lots of help and chose to do your part in the change that you need to make. There will be good days and there will be bad days but the point is to never give up and know that you will achieve victory eventually. You are stronger and more capable than you may realize because you do have a power beyond yourself if you have Jesus within you.