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The Bible clearly teaches the manly struggle of life.  When we strive to move forward, when we do hard things, when we take vows before the Lord, and so forth, we might be departing from the way of faith.  But then, we might not be.  In fact, the way of faith will inevitably take us there.  True dependence on the Lord, because of the magnitude of who he is, will hurl us into experiences which evoke the psychological intensity of effort, more than ever before.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (16.3) proposes that our ability to do good works comes not from ourselves but directly from the Holy Spirit.  Still, it says, that doesn’t mean we can wait for “a special motion of the Spirit” — like, “Ooh, I’m feeling the Holy Spirit now.  I guess I’ll get up off the couch and make something of my life” — but we should shake ourselves awake and get going right now.  But as I listen carefully, I sometimes wonder if some of my friends are saying, in effect, “I won’t exert myself, I won’t be decisive, I’ll hang back, because I might act in unbelief, and I have failed so much already.”  Maybe it’s my own misunderstanding.  But I think I’m tracking here.  And it doesn’t sound like the gospel.  It sounds like law, as if we’ve already filled our quota of forgiveness, and we can expect no more, so let’s be careful not to make any mistakes, let’s not move a muscle, because we just never know when we might act in unbelief.

But wait a minute.  God has given us all things relevant to life and godliness, calling us into his excellence, with great and precious promises of more of himself (2 Peter 1:3-11).

Do we believe that?  If so, what are we waiting for?

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