Message: In 1 John 2 John was answering many of the things that we often wrestle with in our minds. It almost sounded like he was talking in circles as he clarified that we are not to intentionally and freely live in sin, but if we do stumble and sin we have an advocate between us and God through Jesus. There should always be a tension between understanding that we were called out of sin, but we will occasionally stumble and sin. We can’t run fully in either direction. To bring this into perspective John reminds us that when we get saved we are no longer part of the world and it’s systems of belief. We abandon our prior ways to live a new way because the ways of the world and that system of thinking does not work together with a life in Christ. We have to change our mindsets in order to follow after Christ so this leaves us no room to continue on in the same lifestyle. I have heard from so many believers who feel they are on track and then they drift off-course and feel like they have to start all over. This can become a recurrent pattern. Especially if they feel like each time they have to go back to the beginning and try to walk forward without making a mistake. These patterns are unproductive and exhausting because instead of picking up where they stumbled, they feel like they are starting over and trying to walk further without stumbling. If we understand that the stumbling will happen and learn to pick up and continue forward in those moments we will learn how to remain on track in spite of mistakes. This stops the cycle of starting over and pushes us into real growth. Remaining in Christ doesn’t mean we won’t make mistakes. It means that we wake up each and every day and meet with God. We commit our hearts to follow him every day so that we don’t wander off. I think this is what the Lord’s prayer is all about. It’s a daily commitment of our hearts to stay close and keep in check as we as God to help us to do what we can’t. This is surrender.
