5 Obstacles to the Benefits of Being a Child Of God
In Beth Moore's book "Breaking Free" she first covered the five benefits of being a child of God. She next wrote about the five obstacles that stand in the way of experiencing the five benefits.
The first benefit of being a child of God is to know God and believe Him. The largest obstacle, therefore, to this benefit is that of "unbelief, choosing not to believe in God. We're not talking about believing in God. We're talking about believing God, believing what He says. We can believe in Christ for salvation in a matter of seconds and yet spend the rest of our days believing Him for little more." (p. 53)
"Unbelief is crippling. The steps we take forward with God we take through faith. Therefore, unbelief literally cripples our spiritual 'walk', casting huge obstacles in the way of a victorious life. . . If we're willing to admit our lack of confidence in Him, Christ is more than willing to help us overcome our unbelief. Belief - or faith in the abilities and promises of God - is a vital prerequisite for fleshing out the liberty we've won through Him. . . " (p. 55)
Here is a little test to see where your level of belief falls. Rate each statement from 1 to 10 (10 being "strongly believe") to show "how strongly you believe or disbelieve each statement. . .
1. Christians can have areas of captivity.
2. Christ can set anyone free from captivity.
3. God is fully acquainted with you personally and wants what is best for you.
4. Christians have an invisible but very real enemy called Satan.
5. Your heart can sometimes want what is desperately wrong for you.
6. The Bible is the inspired Word of God and true." (pp. 55-56)
Next we can compare what we believe to what Scripture says.
1. In Galatians 5:1 Paul warned, "Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
2. Luke 4:18 reminds us that Jesus said He had been sent to proclaim freedom to the captives.
3. David wrote in Psalm 139:1-3 that the Lord is "familiar with all (our) ways."
4. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:12 that our conflict is not with man, but with "the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
5. Jeremiah wrote that our hearts are "deceitful above all things."
6. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that "all Scripture is God-breathed." (p. 56)
"If we believe the Bible, we can believe the concepts represented by each question. Your struggle may be that you are not utterly convinced that the Bible is God's inspired Word. . . In Scripture we clearly see how important belief can be in the matter of freedom." (p. 57)
"God's will is for us to know Him and believe Him, glorify Him, be satisfied by Him, experience peace in Him, and enjoy Him. For God to have utmost cooperation from us on this freedom trail, we must believe that He is willing and completely able. . . .
We tend to run to God for temporary relief. God is looking for people who will walk with Him in steadfast belief. Choose to believe. Those who trust Him will not be put to shame." (p. 58)
The second benefit of being a child of God is to glorify Him. Isaiah 43:7 says that "we are called to allow the King of all creation to reveal Himself through us. . . By demanding that we seek His glory alone, He calls us to overcome the overwhelming and natural temptation to seek our own." (pp. 59-60) The biggest obstacle to glorifying God is pride.
"To fulfill our God-given destinies - to allow the King of all creation to show Himself through us -we must overcome the temptation to seek our own glory by desiring His instead." (p. 60)
"Pride is a boulder in the road on our journey to freedom. . . (We can roll this stone away) if we give it three mighty shoves.
1. View pride as a vicious enemy. (Proverbs 8:13; Proverbs 11:2; Proverbs 13:10; Proverbs 16:18)
2. View humility as a friend.(Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5)
3. Humbling yourself before God. (James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6; Job 38) (pp. 61-62)
"The last sentence of Daniel 4:37 provides one of the most effective motivations for humility. . .'Those who walk in pride He is able to humble' . . . I'd rather humble myself than force God to humble me." (p. 62)
The third benefit is to find satisfaction in God. . . "God purposely created us with a need that only He can meet. . . Christians can be miserably dissatisfied if they accept Christ's salvation yet reject the fullness of daily relationship. . . Dissatisfaction is not a terrible thing. . . It's only a terrible thing when we don't let it lead us to Christ. . . The third primary obstacle in our road to freedom: settling for satisfaction with anything else. (God has called this) idolatry. . . Anything we try to put in a place where God belongs is an idol." (p. 65)
"We must begin to remove idols by choosing to recognize their existence and admitting their inability to keep us satisfied." (p. 66)
"The void created in our lives for Himself will demand attention. We look desperately for something to satisfy us and fill the empty places. Our craving to be filled is so strong that the moment something or someone seems to meet our need, we feel an overwhelming temptation to worship it." (p. 68)
"The fourth benefit of our relationship with God is to experience His peace. The key to peace is authority - peace is the fruit of an obedient, righteous life." (p. 70) The fourth obstacle is a life without prayer.
"Without a doubt, avoiding prayer is a sure prescription for anxiety, a certain way to avoid peace. . .Often, we do everything but pray. . . What victory the enemy has in winning us over to prayerlessness!. . . He knows prayerless lives are powerless lives, while prayerful lives are powerful lives." (p. 71)
"Only through prayer are we washed in peace." (p. 72)
"Our strongest motivation will be the Person with whom we walk. Staying close to Him through constant communication, we receive a continual supply of strength to walk victoriously - in peace even as we walk through a war zone." (p. 73)
There are hundreds of references to the faithful praying: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Manoah, Samson, Hannah, David, Elijah, Elisha, Job, Hezekiah, Daniel, Jonah, and of course, Jesus.
We are "hopeless to live the victorious life without prayer." (p. 74)
The final benefit is to enjoy God's presence. "The person who studies God's Word in depth and experiences a consistent lack of enjoyment of God often suffers from a condition with an ugly name - legalism." (p. 75)
"The term legalism does not appear in Scripture, but perfect illustrations of it are scattered throughout the Word." (Matthew 12:9-14; Acts 15; Galatians 2:15-16) (p.76)
"We cannot please God or find freedom in rule-keeping. . . Tragically, self-generated righteousness will always appeal to the human heart. In (Beth Moore's) opinion, legalism results when three conditions occur:
1. Regulations replace relationship. . . A student of God's Word can squeeze the enjoyment out of his or her Christian walk by replacing relationship with regulations.
2. Microscopes replace mirrors. . . Concentrating on the shortcomings of others can cheat a Christian of truly enjoying the presence of God.
3. Performance replaces passion. . . Obedience without love is nothing but the law." (pp. 77-78)
"Three strong reasons exist for rolling the large obstacle of legalism out of our way before we go any further in our study.
1. This journey is about a relationship - not regulations.
2. This journey is about you.
3. This journey is about the heart." (p. 78)
Are you having trouble budging one or more of these obstacles off the road? "Then remember, God's specialty is rolling away a stone. Show Him which one is causing you trouble, put your hands on top of His, and on the count of three. . . " (p. 79)
The first benefit of being a child of God is to know God and believe Him. The largest obstacle, therefore, to this benefit is that of "unbelief, choosing not to believe in God. We're not talking about believing in God. We're talking about believing God, believing what He says. We can believe in Christ for salvation in a matter of seconds and yet spend the rest of our days believing Him for little more." (p. 53)
"Unbelief is crippling. The steps we take forward with God we take through faith. Therefore, unbelief literally cripples our spiritual 'walk', casting huge obstacles in the way of a victorious life. . . If we're willing to admit our lack of confidence in Him, Christ is more than willing to help us overcome our unbelief. Belief - or faith in the abilities and promises of God - is a vital prerequisite for fleshing out the liberty we've won through Him. . . " (p. 55)
Here is a little test to see where your level of belief falls. Rate each statement from 1 to 10 (10 being "strongly believe") to show "how strongly you believe or disbelieve each statement. . .
1. Christians can have areas of captivity.
2. Christ can set anyone free from captivity.
3. God is fully acquainted with you personally and wants what is best for you.
4. Christians have an invisible but very real enemy called Satan.
5. Your heart can sometimes want what is desperately wrong for you.
6. The Bible is the inspired Word of God and true." (pp. 55-56)
Next we can compare what we believe to what Scripture says.
1. In Galatians 5:1 Paul warned, "Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
2. Luke 4:18 reminds us that Jesus said He had been sent to proclaim freedom to the captives.
3. David wrote in Psalm 139:1-3 that the Lord is "familiar with all (our) ways."
4. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:12 that our conflict is not with man, but with "the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
5. Jeremiah wrote that our hearts are "deceitful above all things."
6. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that "all Scripture is God-breathed." (p. 56)
"If we believe the Bible, we can believe the concepts represented by each question. Your struggle may be that you are not utterly convinced that the Bible is God's inspired Word. . . In Scripture we clearly see how important belief can be in the matter of freedom." (p. 57)
"God's will is for us to know Him and believe Him, glorify Him, be satisfied by Him, experience peace in Him, and enjoy Him. For God to have utmost cooperation from us on this freedom trail, we must believe that He is willing and completely able. . . .
We tend to run to God for temporary relief. God is looking for people who will walk with Him in steadfast belief. Choose to believe. Those who trust Him will not be put to shame." (p. 58)
The second benefit of being a child of God is to glorify Him. Isaiah 43:7 says that "we are called to allow the King of all creation to reveal Himself through us. . . By demanding that we seek His glory alone, He calls us to overcome the overwhelming and natural temptation to seek our own." (pp. 59-60) The biggest obstacle to glorifying God is pride.
"To fulfill our God-given destinies - to allow the King of all creation to show Himself through us -we must overcome the temptation to seek our own glory by desiring His instead." (p. 60)
"Pride is a boulder in the road on our journey to freedom. . . (We can roll this stone away) if we give it three mighty shoves.
1. View pride as a vicious enemy. (Proverbs 8:13; Proverbs 11:2; Proverbs 13:10; Proverbs 16:18)
2. View humility as a friend.(Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5)
3. Humbling yourself before God. (James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6; Job 38) (pp. 61-62)
"The last sentence of Daniel 4:37 provides one of the most effective motivations for humility. . .'Those who walk in pride He is able to humble' . . . I'd rather humble myself than force God to humble me." (p. 62)
The third benefit is to find satisfaction in God. . . "God purposely created us with a need that only He can meet. . . Christians can be miserably dissatisfied if they accept Christ's salvation yet reject the fullness of daily relationship. . . Dissatisfaction is not a terrible thing. . . It's only a terrible thing when we don't let it lead us to Christ. . . The third primary obstacle in our road to freedom: settling for satisfaction with anything else. (God has called this) idolatry. . . Anything we try to put in a place where God belongs is an idol." (p. 65)
"We must begin to remove idols by choosing to recognize their existence and admitting their inability to keep us satisfied." (p. 66)
"The void created in our lives for Himself will demand attention. We look desperately for something to satisfy us and fill the empty places. Our craving to be filled is so strong that the moment something or someone seems to meet our need, we feel an overwhelming temptation to worship it." (p. 68)
"The fourth benefit of our relationship with God is to experience His peace. The key to peace is authority - peace is the fruit of an obedient, righteous life." (p. 70) The fourth obstacle is a life without prayer.
"Without a doubt, avoiding prayer is a sure prescription for anxiety, a certain way to avoid peace. . .Often, we do everything but pray. . . What victory the enemy has in winning us over to prayerlessness!. . . He knows prayerless lives are powerless lives, while prayerful lives are powerful lives." (p. 71)
"Only through prayer are we washed in peace." (p. 72)
"Our strongest motivation will be the Person with whom we walk. Staying close to Him through constant communication, we receive a continual supply of strength to walk victoriously - in peace even as we walk through a war zone." (p. 73)
There are hundreds of references to the faithful praying: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Manoah, Samson, Hannah, David, Elijah, Elisha, Job, Hezekiah, Daniel, Jonah, and of course, Jesus.
We are "hopeless to live the victorious life without prayer." (p. 74)
The final benefit is to enjoy God's presence. "The person who studies God's Word in depth and experiences a consistent lack of enjoyment of God often suffers from a condition with an ugly name - legalism." (p. 75)
"The term legalism does not appear in Scripture, but perfect illustrations of it are scattered throughout the Word." (Matthew 12:9-14; Acts 15; Galatians 2:15-16) (p.76)
"We cannot please God or find freedom in rule-keeping. . . Tragically, self-generated righteousness will always appeal to the human heart. In (Beth Moore's) opinion, legalism results when three conditions occur:
1. Regulations replace relationship. . . A student of God's Word can squeeze the enjoyment out of his or her Christian walk by replacing relationship with regulations.
2. Microscopes replace mirrors. . . Concentrating on the shortcomings of others can cheat a Christian of truly enjoying the presence of God.
3. Performance replaces passion. . . Obedience without love is nothing but the law." (pp. 77-78)
"Three strong reasons exist for rolling the large obstacle of legalism out of our way before we go any further in our study.
1. This journey is about a relationship - not regulations.
2. This journey is about you.
3. This journey is about the heart." (p. 78)
Are you having trouble budging one or more of these obstacles off the road? "Then remember, God's specialty is rolling away a stone. Show Him which one is causing you trouble, put your hands on top of His, and on the count of three. . . " (p. 79)
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