Is a commitment to allow God to do whatever it takes to bring me into the fullness of Christ. That commitment is an unconditional faith. It is a commitment that we are going to have to live out by picking up the cross and walking. But along the way we will — not only commit acts of sin — but our faith and commitment is going to be continually challenged so that it might be strengthened — and at times we may faint and lapse into unbelief. The question is whether we get up and realize that this isn’t about whether we sin — but whether we will continue on in the faith of the Lord. Indeed, it is certain that if we do relinquish ourselves to the Lord, that we will pass through a long season of wilderness wherein God will bring out all of our fake faith, unrighteousness, and complete barrenness. And that wont’ be pretty — yet it will be the TRUTH — and show us that all of our faith must be in Christ, and none in us. But so many at a time like that look at their failures and conclude that this means that God is not with them. No, such an exposure is evidence that Christ is in you — and you are seeing LIGHT. Isn’t it amazing how we continue to evaluate ourselves in order to figure out whether Christ is in us? WE are not evidence that Christ is in us. Christ Himself is the evidence and we need to put ourselves completely aside and abide in HIM. The fact is, we are all going to fail — it is all we can do in ourselves — but God will show us our failures so that we might stop being preoccupied with ourselves. So the question becomes, when we do fail, or sin — even after having made this commitment of faith to lose my life to the Lord — what do I do then? Simply this: I open myself to God, confess to Him my condition, and get right back into losing my life for His sake. It is never too late, and there is never a situation, wherein that is not possible. We have to grasp the fact that part of the surrender of self ownership to God is the surrender of self-righteousness — I have to surrender everything about myself that I was using to stand before the Lord. God will be working towards this end to set me free, but if I don’t understand that, I may be confused. I think that all of us have the tendency to examine ourselves to, “see how we are doing” — and without realizing it, we have put ourselves right back under a law — and despair. But the Bible says to examine ourselves to see whether we are IN THE FAITH. I hope this helps. Expect to fail. But faith is never in ourselves, whether we fail or succeed — but rather in Christ despite either
