TsubasaKamen wrote:Although you are right when you say that the focus must not be on self, but on God. I am struggling to center my thoughts and feelings on God while being overthrown by the Devil all the time.
I'm gonna let you finish, but let me stop you right here because we're already off to a skewed start. I mean, let's put blame where blame is due. The devil isn't someone than can just attack you and you have no defense. By believing in God, the devil has no power over you unless you give it to him.
So what you are experiencing is your sinful self(flesh) not being able to be perfect, which is fine. We are not expected to be perfect, nor should be try to be. We just need to trust and believe in God and be willing to develop a relationship with God.
Everyone struggles trusting in God though, that's a normal thing caused by us living in sinful bodies in a sinful world. That's one of the hardest things for someone to admit though, that they suck and that they can't change that no matter what we do. But God loves us anyways. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
What I mean by this is that I, although I am gradually on the process of changing, have not yet fully transformed from one state of glory to another.
Oh, you haven't accepted Christ into your heart yet? That's the one and only transformation that matters. Everything else personality wise, emotionally, physically, etc, is all fluff and doesn't really matter in the long run as much as your spiritual transformation (which is, the Spirit of God living inside of you) and knowing you are forgiven.
In order to live a victorious life in the Spirit of the Living God it is necessary for this transformation to occur.
Exactly. In order to live in Christ, you have you accept His Spirit into your heart.
If one can not change his or her own life, then one can not fully experience God.
WHOA WHOA WHOA, step on the brakes there, bud. Where the heck did you get this? This is not Biblical. No where in the Bible is says we have to change our lives to experience God. In fact, the Bible says that our salvation doesn't depend on our own actions at all. God makes Himself available to all who choose to believe in Him. No works required.
The Transforming Truth of God's Word changes you and makes you what you ought to be by the Grace of His Spirit and Word to live for Him in fullness of Truth.
Sure, and this is done by letting God work through you, not by trying to make this happen on your own. If you simply trust and give everything to God, you'd be surprised how much stuff gets done.
Us trying to "become better" gets in the way of God's work in us because we're already failures without God.
I do not mean to center my thoughts on myself... but God is in the business of building Character Growth. He does not want a Church that is still weak in their sins. He wants a Church that is TRANSFORMED and CONFORMED into the Image of His Son Jesus Christ.
CITATION NEEDED PLEASE. Where are you getting this? It's like you read one or two verses in the Bible and made up the rest. :\ Or, heaven forbid (literally), that you simply are saying and capitalizing important sounding words and don't actually know what they mean. And I don't mean just the definitions. I mean,
do you know what they mean personally to you and your life? If you read the Bible, you'll find that God's focus more on having a personal relationship with people and loving them unconditionally. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell Christians to build character. Nor does God demand the Church or anyone to become sinless (which is impossible). Now, if you believe that with enough work/transformation sin will eventually go away in our lives here on earth, you are in for a rude awakening and there's not much I can do to soften than for you.
You use "transformed" a lot, though, and I think I know where you're getting that from (from the verse in your signature that still has the wrong reference, I'm guessing). Though, it's a curious thing. "Transform" is only mentioned a small amount of times in the Bible. Most if not all in the New Testament. Some refer to the transforming of our lowly bodies to "conformed to His(Jesus') glorious body" when Jesus comes back (the second coming, basically.) Reference: Philippians 3:20-21.
The other times, it's about God transforming us; which is especially true in the verse from your signature. Our own effort is not involved.
I guess it would be worthless to say that you are "trying too hard' and getting nowhere from the looks of it. But, I'll be praying that you can find peace in being the person God created you to be and hoping that you can rest and trust in Him.
Feel free to PM me if you want to further this discussion with me.