Selwyn spends another day discussing why we struggle in giving our ‘self’ to the God who created us – and perhaps this is at the heart of the matter. It’s our inability to put the relationship of the ‘creator’ and the ‘created’ into its true perspective.

As he writes in today’s study: ‘Our nature dislikes this feeling (of total helplessness, which surrender to God involves); and attempts to protect us from the sense of defencelessness which full surrender inevitably brings. … He wants us to be willing to trust Him enough to experience that feeling of helplessness, and abandon ourselves completely to Him. A life of peace involves total surrender to Jesus, and the willingness to cease living as a self-centred person and to (joyfully) live as a Christ-centred one.”

I think that once we believe in God, and that as created beings we have no real independence – that our very existence depends on God and not the whim of our parents. We can then allow ourselves to fall into His hands knowing that He will always be there, to catch us – because He perfectly loves us – this we can depend on -  forever. To surrender ourselves to His love, is life itself – do you agree?

Selwyn continues his discussion on being only partially committed to Jesus. He says: “Christ’s ideas are often in conflict with our ideas. So deeply embedded in our nature is self-centredness that we frequently think we are doing things for Christ’s glory when, in reality, we are doing them for our own glory. … The point is that there can be no real peace and happiness in the heart of someone who has areas of their life into which Christ is not invited. Duality cannot exist in the soul without disaster.”

I entirely agree with Selwyn’s view that it’s our self-centred nature that constantly tries to wrestle the ‘steering wheel’ out of God’s hands. We often attempt to change God’s will, to match what we want to do – the concept of self-sacrifice is not an easy concept to live with, in our consumer driven world. What do you think? 

I liked the prayer for today: “Father, I realise that You claim the whole of my heart and not just a part. Forgive me for the struggles I have to give it to You in its entirety. Please help me bring everything under Your sway because the rightness of doing so is clear. Amen.”

I must admit that I did not know the meaning of ‘diarchy’ until I read today’s study.

Of the three things I liked; the best is the verse (1 John 5:4): ” … everyone born of God overcomes the world.” Notice, that it is not just ‘some’, a select few, but everyone born of God is (more) than a conqueror – this should be a great comfort, especially during the hard times.

The second area, are the following points made by Selwyn: “No one can be truly happy and effective when there is inner division. There must be unity within or else collapse will be inevitable. … (This is an example of) spiritual diarchy. They have enough of the love of Christ in their hearts to make them miserable. By that I mean the love of Christ is allowed to enter into their lives only so far – far enough to give them a taste of what life is all about but not far enough to sweep them to victory.” I think another way of expressing the same thing is that often these people have a ‘head’ knowledge about Jesus – they believe in what Jesus has done for them; but they don’t live this belief. The journey from the head to the heart can sometimes take a life-time. What are your views?

Thirdly, we are able to invite Jesus into our heart and give Him full control of our lives. What a wonderful ability, to be able to invite the God of all creation into our own heart, and that He will accept our invitation – now that’s an idea too great to accept – don’t you think. As Selwyn writes, being more than conquerors, means “Allowing Christ to reign in every part of our life and in all our relationships, and then living triumphantly.”

Selywn continues looking at the meaning of Romans 8:37; ” … in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”  He introduces today’s study with this statement: “Not only does being ‘more than a conqueror’ not guarantee freedom from making mistakes; it does not mean either, that we will never again commit a wrong act or sin.”

In our western culture the concept of sin has long been forgotten by many people – and it’s one area where I think priests/ministers/pastors need to spend more time teaching a biblical-based view of sin. There is a growing trend to think of murder, rape or armed robbery as examples of ‘real’ sin; and everything else is okay, as long as no one gets hurt.

Today’s conclusion captures where our priorities should lie – “A true and growing Christian is someone who begins the day by availing himself or herself of the God-given power to overcome sin. And if that person does sin, they do not sink deeper into the mud but cries out for the Shepherd. [see the verses below - from John's first letter - regarding forgiveness]”

We demonstrate the depth of our relationship with Jesus by consistently striving to avoid sin at all times. Do you agree?

 (1 John 1:5-10) “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”

I liked Selwyn’s introductory sentence: “Being more than a conqueror, we saw yesterday, does not mean we will not be tempted. Now we clarify another matter: it does not guarantee us freedom from making mistakes.” Yet, I must admit I was a bit lost with the rest of what he had to say.

God, alone is perfect – I think that being human means that we are always on a path of learning and we will constantly make mistakes – we will often fail. The important lesson, is to learn from our mistakes and take active measures to avoid the same pitfalls. Failure is not a significant problem if we learn to avoid making the mistakes which led to the failure! Constantly, making the same errors of judgment; and, failing over and over again, in the same way – is a problem. If we seek God’s help and trust in the provision of His power – we can avoid making the same type of mistakes – do you agree?

I think one sentence summarises today’s study well: “There is a big difference between thoughts of evil and evil thoughts. Thoughts of evil are those ideas that enter our minds uninvited; they become evil thoughts only when we allow them to remain and dwell on them.”

Evil thoughts are often uninvited visitors, it’s how we receive them – we can either show them the door or invite them in, to sit down and ‘feel at home’.

It’s for our encouragement to read in Luke’s Gospel, the following: that ‘Jesus went into the desert to be tempted by the devil ‘full of the Holy Spirit’ (Luke 4:1), and came out ‘in the power of the Spirit.’ (Luke 4:14). We can follow Jesus, and do the same; or, we can sin and then seek forgiveness each Sunday – what use is that? 

Selwyn spends another day talking about our ability to be ‘more than conquerors’, when we follow Jesus.

He says: “A consequence of the Word dwelling among us (Jesus) is the fact that we not only have the offer of forgiveness for sin, but along with it, and as a part of it, we are offered the power to overcome sin. Forgiveness and power are indissoluble aspects of the grace of God.”

In some churches there is an air of resignation to sin – you see it everywhere. The church, which I attend, puts out a newsletter each month or so; in the latest edition, the editors have included what appears to be a humorous and harmless, witty saying: “Some people spend six days a week sowing wild oats, then go to church on Sunday and pray for crop failure.” I was asked by one editor if I had any issues with the words.

The words indicate the nature of the disease affecting many churches – a deadly disease which spreads the idea that sin is forgiven but there is no need to seek God’s power to overcome sin – the solution is to seek God’s forgiveness every Sunday. As Selwyn says in today’s study ‘if we take the forgiveness without the power then we would be faced worth moral weakness.’

And, that’s what many churches are faced with – moral weakness – from the highest member to the lowest – in many churches – there is a tyranny of moral weakness and habitual sinfulness. What’s your view?