Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (Full Version)

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SomeFineDay -> Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/4/2008 12:18:39 AM)

We all face those sins that are hard to resist, hard to run away from, hard to say no to. Even knowing all the right things to do does not mean that we are going to do them.

So on besetting sins, its so hard to grow and be free, and even with hard effort its hard to see much progress.

Is God satisfied with very slow growth when it comes to besetting sins, or does he expect more of us?

Is a "c" or "D" better than a "F" or is God like the parent who thinks we should all get "A's" and "B's"?



Jameschristopher -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/4/2008 12:30:59 AM)

I think that GOD wants us to all get A"s and gives us the tools to do so. Its up to us to use those tools. But He knows that it can be hard for us sometimes to do that, so as long as you are still activly trying then He is pleased. Its when you stop altogether, or us you shortcoming as an excuse to sin that He gets upset.



kmangel -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/4/2008 12:56:22 AM)

I think our entire spiritual journey is made up of God giving us opportunity after opportunity to be obedient. I know from personal experience that it may take me three or four times to finally do what God was asking me to do.

Then when we think we've finally succeeded in some area guess what--a new area opens up and the journey continues.



BerianAardvark -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/4/2008 6:44:48 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: SomeFineDay

We all face those sins that are hard to resist, hard to run away from, hard to say no to. Even knowing all the right things to do does not mean that we are going to do them.

So on besetting sins, its so hard to grow and be free, and even with hard effort its hard to see much progress.

Is God satisfied with very slow growth when it comes to besetting sins, or does he expect more of us?

Is a "c" or "D" better than a "F" or is God like the parent who thinks we should all get "A's" and "B's"?


Is God taken by surprise when we sin again and again? He knew what He was getting when He saved us.

He knows us better than we know ourselves, and has an eternal perspective...He knows what we WILL be.

When I look back on my life (especially the 15-20 years I blew trying to live it MY way when I knew better), I can see His hand guiding me back to Him with immense patience and love. For me to have acted/reacted then the way I would now to my besetting sins, I would have had to be the person I am now back then...an impossibility.

God can (and in some instances has) change people dramatically over night, but for most of us He (for reasons of His own) allows us to age and mellow at a much slower pace....if nothing else so we will be able to help comfort others as we have been helped and comforted.

Tim



jn1010lf -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/4/2008 9:17:01 AM)

Hello SomeFineDay

Look at it this way. My mother always told me, "Remember, no matter what you do, you will always be our son."

Our God is like that. If we have a relationship with Him through the free gift of salvation, no matter what we ever do, we will always be His child. He's like that; He loves us with an everlasting love that is not predicated on whatever we do or don't do. That's agape love and it's also His nature to do so.

Now as for besetting sins. I've learned that I have had to search my heart and decide what I love the most, Him or sins I hold onto. I've also learned that the closer I get to Him, the more I come to know Him, the less pull I get from those sins.

A preacher once said, "The Lord will never deliver you from your friends but will always deliver you from your enemies." So, we have to decide. Are the sins we hold onto our friends or our enemies. Consider the pleas of Isaiah. His fellow Jews rejected God, yet he continued to show them what God wanted to do in their lives.



SomeFineDay -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/4/2008 1:54:27 PM)

I guess that is true, while thinking today I realized that I easily can do the right thing, while in the past I would have done the wrong without thinking.



scottmcc1 -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/4/2008 9:45:41 PM)

1 Corinthians 10:13

"No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it."



Miril -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/4/2008 10:01:01 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: scottmcc1

1 Corinthians 10:13

"No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it."



Exactly so grasp it so you could be closer to Him.

Follow God halfway and he will bless you halfway.

It is black or white.

black=wrong
white=right

black=evil
white=Godly



terryjohn -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/5/2008 1:42:34 PM)

Faith demands that we have sins as too does grace. It is said that when we see as we are seen we will be finally like Him but as Paul says we at present but see through a dim looking glass we should be content that not more is expected of us for to whom much is given much is required. In this sense Christ is correct in saying blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe for we really are forgiven only on the basis of our not knowing what we are really doing. Nevertheless, those who rape, murder and pillage would have us imagine they have never so much as heard of God. Can we say that to whom the gospel is preached is being for the first time being confronted by their sins, the inputation of sin? For apart from the knowledge of the law or the gospel there is no sin.

Sins are but consequences of not knowing God so the fact that we do not fully see as we are seen would demand faith not sinlessness or perfection, now that does not stop us from wanting it, in fact, it really goes to heighten our desire for the liberty that comes from being in Christ.

Now if we were to say that we have in this life seen the face of God, we could well want to die, for no man can see it and live without an excuse for his sins.

According to the fact that we are saved by grace and faith alone, we should not expect that too much more would be expect of us, since that while were still sinners Christ died for us. In the end, we need more to go on if we are to be better!



rcjames -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/5/2008 3:46:10 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: terryjohn
Faith demands that we have sins as too does grace.



(Rom 6:15) What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

If God forbids that we should sin as Believers then I just do not think that we should have anythng to do with sin.

Thsnks
RC



Miril -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/5/2008 3:50:32 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: rcjames

quote:

ORIGINAL: terryjohn
Faith demands that we have sins as too does grace.



(Rom 6:15) What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

If God forbids that we should sin as Believers then I just do not think that we should have anythng to do with sin.

Thsnks
RC


Agree with RC, and here is that message. Good stuff.

Romans 6:15 (The Message)
The Message (MSG)

What Is True Freedom?
15-18So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!



SonInMe1 -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/5/2008 7:12:42 PM)

quote:

Follow God halfway and he will bless you halfway.

It is black or white.


I think Job would disagree.

Its only black and white if we know the total mind of God, which we do not.

There IS absolute truth and that is the charactor and mind of God and the 20,000 christian denominations point clearly that we do not know the total mind of God.

We do have the Manual though and certainly sin and good are defined in it. There is no doubt we KNOW what sin is.

There is alos no doubt we NEED God. Life is about Him. All about Him. Without Him, there is no life and we wallow in the death of our sins.

I don't believe God makes cookie cutouts of christians however. Not all of us have the same experiences or what I call sin challenges. I think, we all DO have sin challenges, sins that "appeal" to us individually.

Does God have a time table for us to root out the sins in our lives? I don't know. Did the pharoh harden his own heart...or did God? The bible says both. I am not sure that has to do with God existing outside of time, that He knew the Pharoh would harden his own heart against God and then He hardened it further....or not.

I don't know. All I do know is sin is bad. All sin is bad. It does no one any good and to not sin is the standard set for us in the bible...

and I fall short of that. There could be many reasons for that. All I do know is that I need God desperatly. All I do know is that I am not God. I am not perfect.



LCannon -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/5/2008 7:37:14 PM)

Growth is growth in whatever increments, inches to leaps. He's never satisfied(as we shouldn't be)until we met Him in Glory. Philippians 3:13-"Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." The important quality is moving ahead. Apparently, even Job wasn't assured of much but he was sure of one thing, '...my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth...'



Miril -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/5/2008 7:55:41 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: SonInMe1

quote:

Follow God halfway and he will bless you halfway.

It is black or white.


I think Job would disagree.


Perhaps, and with all due respect to Job... We are not Job.

I used black and white just to show it is either this or that, black or white, right or wrong, you're either in or out... Anything grey is shaky, God wants us wholeheartedly not shaky - or shady even.

Yes, he is patient and loving but if it were up to him he would have us all praising him now. [:D]

Acts 5:29
29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men".



glimmerinthedark -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/6/2008 5:43:41 AM)

Revelation 3:8-12


"I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name."



iamjc-s -> RE: Is God satisfied with very slow growth on besetting sins (6/6/2008 11:53:53 AM)

quote:

Revelation 3:15-16
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then, because thou art luke-warm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit thee out of my mouth:


The Bible says if you are not growing as a Christian, you are dead.
It does not specify the rate of growth, but elsewhere it says basically that faith even the size of a mustard seed is enough to move a mountain.



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