Unlimited LordSample

Trying to improve our character apart from Jesus’ way is like the crew of a sailing ship trying to get the becalmed vessel moving by pushing against the masts. Or like a drowning man trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at his own hair. 

Paul taught us the better way. We cannot change ourselves any more than we can give birth to ourselves. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed" (Romans 12:2). We do not transform ourselves. We are transformed as we meditate on the Lord’s glory.

We can be more than conquerors! (Romans 8:37). Yes, you and me! Not by gritting our teeth, not by more resolutions, but by regularly exposing our hearts and minds to the "Chiefest Among Ten Thousand", the "One Altogether lovely"—our Unlimited Lord. 

Christ has already crushed the head of the serpent. Christ has judged and cast out the devil. Jesus' victory is for us. It is Jesus who separates us from evil. When your heart is filled with the most precious thing in the universe—Christ's love—then the alternatives offered by temptation appear in all their tawdry shabbiness. In the face of even colossal enticements, we victoriously cry, "I don't want them! I'd rather have Jesus." 

It is sometimes difficult for us to see how we have been changed by the love of God, because the closer we come to Jesus, the more sinful we see ourselves. 

Ask a trusted Christian friend who has known you for some time what changes he or she has seen in you? Talk about it.