BACK TO THE BASICS
Suppose you’ve been struggling against demonic influence for some time. You’ve confessed, renounced, repented, forgiven and apologized as necessary. But still the battle continues at a furious pace. What to do now? Don’t panic, fear or look for some quick short-cut to victory.
What should you do? Whenever a sports team is struggling, they go back to the basics. When a business is foundering, they need to make sure they are following good basic using good basic business principles. The same is true in living the Christian life. When we are struggling and don’t seem to be having victory, we need to go back to the basics the basics. These are some of the basics:
1 Spend time with Jesus every day, preferably in the morning when you first wake up. Read your Bible. Read a whole Bible book, don’t just jump around reading a few verses here and there every day. Ask God to teach you about Himself as you read. Then spend some time in prayer. Confess any sin you are aware of in your life which you haven’t confessed before. Confession means agreeing with God that it is sin. Spend some time praising Him for Who and what He is and thanking Him for all He has done for you. Then pray for the needs of others and finally for your own needs.
- Make sure there is no sin in your life. We all sin and continue to sin, that’s why we confess it (1 John 1:9). But if there are any sins that are ongoing, you must do everything in your power to have victory over them. Sin breaks our fellowship with God and opens us to attack by the enemy. Ask God to give you the strength to overcome these things (1 Corinthians 10:13). . They may be hard at first for they can be long-time habits and the enemy doesn’t want you to stop them, but they are important to stop. Commit to stopping. If you do fail confess it and start over again. This includes thoughts, attitudes, things you should be doing but aren’t, good you do out of self-centered motives, unforgiveness, anger, jealousy and others.
- Make sure you go to a church that preaches the Bible and that you attend regularly. It is important to worship and fellowship with other Christians. We all need worship, Bible study, fellowship and meeting other people. Make sure you do this as often as you can. If you work Sunday mornings try to change your schedule or go other times during the week when you can. This is a great way of growing and gaining strength from others.
Start working on these 3 each day and you’ll build a solid foundation with God. Consistent faithfulness weakens the work of the flesh and demons so you can begin to have victory again. It took you a long time to get into this place you are in and it will take some time to grow out of it as well. If God just quickly removed everything and made your life perfect you would soon be tempted to get back into some of those things, or something else. That’s why it’s important to grow spiritually and get stronger so that as these things fade you stay close to Him.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-3 Christian brothers, we ask you, because of the Lord Jesus, to keep on living in a way that will please God. I have already told you how to grow in the Christian life. The Lord Jesus gave us the right and the power to tell you what to do. God wants you to be holy. You must keep away from sin.
No matter how long you have been a Christian, it’s always beneficial to keep going back to the basics. That’s where the ‘game’ is won or lost. It’s easy to slip in one or more areas. How are you doing in the things mentioned above? What improvements can you make?
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling, World View)
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