Freedom to Change (Accepting God's Grace and Walking in the Spirit Turns our Have-to's into Want-to's!)

Someone said, “God is in the business of turning our have-to’s into want to’s.  God wants us to realize
His love and acceptance for us is not due to our own self-effort but solely because of unmerited grace.
Understanding and living by this truth will cause us to “want to” follow His word and embrace His commands, not as a response to an expected “code of conduct” but as a response to His love and acceptance for us.   It’s not that we “have to”, we now “want to” love him with all of our heart, soul, and strength.  To the person walking in the knowledge of His grace it is no longer a ‘head’ matter, but rather a ‘heart’ matter.   Our attitude should be one of ‘wanting’ to know Him, wanting to serve Him, and wanting to please Him.  This is true love!  We want to obey Him because we understand that He unconditionally loves and accepts us, therefore we want to demonstrate our love for Him.  As the beloved of God, we are now set free to walk as Jesus walked.  (1 John 3)   By grace, we are liberated into the life of love that can and is willing to endure whatever the cost so that others may come to understand God’s love for them.  

The Apostle Paul said, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty!”  The liberty he is speaking of
here is not freedom to do what we want, how we want, and when we want—but it is the freedom to
change!  The Spirit of liberty gives us the freedom and power to do what HE wants, how HE wants, and when HE wants.  Freedom to truly change!   This is radically different from the way the world around us lives.  The world is enslaved to the power of sin over their lives.  They are under the dominion of Satan, controlled by the sinful nature, and they are powerless to change on their own.  But thanks be to God who gives us the victory! He has set free those who call upon His name, broken the power of sin and the control of our sinful nature, and He has replaced the spirit of the world with His Spirit turning our 'have-to's' into 'want-to's'.


As someone has poignantly observed:  We don’t walk in the Spirit by overcoming the flesh, we overcome the flesh by walking in the Spirit.  When we walk in the Spirit our focus is upon Christ - not self.  When we walk in the Spirit we do not focus on how we can defeat the flesh, instead, we focus upon the ONE who already overcame sin and gave us the power to walk in His victory.  The key is Christ, for apart from Him we can do nothing but through Christ we can do all things!  When we walk in the Spirit our attitude is focused on the joy and privilege of serving Him rather than the drudgery of religious duty and obligations.  What am I saying?  I am saying that when we walk in the Spirit our have-to's become want-to's!!!  We now want to walk blamelessly before God - we now want to offer Him an offering in righteousness - we now want to offer our bodies as instruments of righteousness and as living sacrifices - we now want to joyfully serve and obey Him - we now want to make sacrifices of the flesh to bring Him greater glory and honor - we now want to serve and help someone in need - we now want to put an end to sinful addictions - we now want to attempt to love our enemies!  Christ will turn your have to's into want to's if you will just accept His grace and free gift of love every single day.  Let us make it our goal, therefore, to walk in the Spirit (of grace) daily so we can extend this grace to others and live to glorify God rather than please the flesh and gratify the desires of our base sinful nature.  God has so much more for us.  Let us live up to our calling in Christ Jesus!