UPDATE: My apologies. Part Three has been unavoidably delayed (perhaps this weekend?) due to busy days and a need to breathe.

Part One can be found here.

Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! — Gal 6:15

Pleasing God was the ultimate goal of my life for as long as I can remember. Yet I always seemed to come up short. No matter what I did I could not find the magical ingredient that allowed me to feel I pleased Him or was worthy of His love. It never occurred to me that trusting Him with all of me was far more important to God than all my striving to please Him. Yet over the last few years God’s persistent question to me has been, "do you trust Me? Will you trust Me?"

Recently Jesus began applying this question to my sin. Do I trust, will I trust, that His personal specific sin-intervention also applies to every sin I have done and will do as a follower of Christ?  This is a difficult concept for a woman who grew up believing she bore sole responsibility for keeping herself from sin. Moreover, that when I did sin it separated me once again from God, building a wall between God and me that only I could tear down (through repentance). Turns out that was a lie from— well, you figure it out — that even my parents and Sunday School teachers seemed to believe. For they drilled it into me over and over — "sin separates us from God."

But the truth is, once we are followers of Jesus nothing, nothing can separate us from Him. Nothing. Not even our sin. He is stuck like glue, like green on grass, and never, ever leaves. Did you know He stays with me and talks to me even as I’m sinning? Okay, that’s just weird. Don’t you think? I never imagined God would do such a thing. Yet He does. Perhaps He always did and I was just hiding so far back in the dark that I couldn’t see Him or hear Him whispering, "please stop! Please don’t hurt my little girl!"

This whole idea is difficult enough for me to digest but there’s an even more perplexing question Jesus has started asking. "Will you trust me with your temptation? Maybe next time it hits you could bring it to me, talk to me about it. We could fight it together."

Shut. Up.

Jesus wants to be a part of my sin-resistance process?? He actually wants to help me "resist" or "flee" temptation? But wait. Doesn’t Scripture say that I must do that myself, that that’s my job? Turns out it doesn’t and I was never meant to do it alone. Who knew? Trying to do so actually negates Christ’s work on the cross –didn’t think of that, either.

Yeah but I thought He gave me power through the Holy Spirit so He wouldn’t have to get personally involved. He did, but it turns out that that "power" comes in the form of His personal presence.  He actually personally shows up to help in the resistance. He wants us to resist together, using His power and my willingness to try. That’s kind of like asking for an autographed picture of George Clooney and having him personally show up for dinner instead. —-Mmm… let me ponder that image a moment longer… — Too cool for words!

Side note: I realize there is a contradiction in theology in the above paragraph. I know the Holy Spirit is God. So if He gave me His Spirit, it naturally follows that it’s really God that I have. But here’s the thing: that knowledge never made it from my head to my sin-entangled soul. And I think this is rather indicative of how most Christians live: thinking one thing in their head while living out another with their lives because their souls never got the message. I always knew the Holy Spirit was God, yet I still believed that the Spirit-power within me was really only an extension of my own salvation, not truly "Christ. In. me." I certainly did not view it as God personally showing up in and for my every sin, or aiding me in resisting it.

Here’s the bottom line. If you get nothing else out of this series, hear this: God’s greatest desire is that you would trust Him with every part of you, no matter how ugly or ungodly you may think it is. He wants you to trust Him with your life, yes, but more than that, with yourself; with who you are at the core of your being and in the darkest, most secret places of your soul. He is tireless in His efforts to convince you of His trustworthiness and relentless in His pursuit of your trust. And if you will trust Him with you — even just a little part — you will find a full partnership that brings freedom to be who you really are without any masks or any fear of condemnation or judgment. Even when you sin.

Part Three coming soon.