Get Me Out of the Way

Sitting here this morning, engaging in some much needed quiet time to myself, I have been reminded once again of the necessity to surrender my own efforts in order to allow God to work through me.

"God does not want us to work FOR him, to witness FOR him, to live FOR him. He wants to get SELF out of the way so he can work through us." - Charles Solomon

Typically, as Christians, when we think about "self" or "flesh", we think about things such as sexual sins, drug and alcohol abuse, not being in church enough, stealing, or some other behavior we have or have not distanced ourselves from. I'm finding more and more that I allow my self to be the center of my life in a much more sinisterly hidden way: religious striving.

As I stated in my last post here on this blog, God has begun a work in me to free me from my attempts to win the battle for my mind. The quote from Solomon up above was another loving interaction between the Holy Spirit and me regarding this. I habitually do the work while God is asking me to let Him initiate and guide, while I follow. I talk a lot about being Christ-centered, but when I am stressing and pushing myself constantly, even if it is to do "the right things" and to avoid "the wrong things", I am self-centered...centered on me doing the work FOR God. If we have trouble discerning if Christ or self is in the center of our lives, there is always evidence in our lives that can serve as red flags that we are doing this. For me, anxiety, insomnia, no joy, and exhaustion are among the forerunners.