God wishes we follow His lead throughout our dwelling days on earth. For this reason, He strives with us on a constant basis by His Spirit. He fights with our sinful nature to strengthen our inner man for wisdom and justice. Each time we turn away from sin or trample our sin nature we please Him for His effort in us. It means we felt His strivings indicating our being in grace; we have put up a victorious battle in our mind. At this juncture He is pleased with us for sustaining His image granted to us in His Son. He expects us to uphold holiness and does not wish we fulfill it by fleshly efforts. For the efforts of the flesh cannot attain the perfection He seeks. They are vulnerable to contamination and when it happens, they displease Him highly. He wants us to uphold holiness by acknowledging His efforts in us which are His strivings against sin and its forms. As He leads us to defeat sin and its forms everything accomplished is righteousness.
It is when believers do not follow His lead to be established both in the Lord and in life that they invariably distance themselves from Him. This causes Him grief and gives Him the need to dissociate from them until they again find Him. If He loses patience with them, He will choose to distance Himself from them. He sees that their flesh has been playing the pivotal role in guiding them than His counsel. Then He will choose to act against them. He will remove from before them that which must be dear to them having given them over to the fruit of sin. It is because men chose unrighteousness over righteousness that He once destroyed the whole mankind leaving a few as an example of His justice. “Then the LORD said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years” (Gen. 6:3).
It is in our power owing to the faith received to let God be pleased with us. By what the men of the earlier days did He reduced their life time to a mere 120 years. He no longer wanted to associate with any man for more than that time period. It means He has also decided not to associate with us for more than it in spite of being saved by faith in Christ. What this can infer is that if we continue to grieve Him without fearing grace, He can still choose to severely discipline us that we do not suffer Him more than He already has. He will not take away our salvation that is by reason of Christ’s death on the cross, but He puts us to the misery of carelessness. In the above verse He gives His stern view of the flesh in which all men are born in. As long as we being in the flesh continue in the works of the flesh, we will not perpetually escape His fury. And no man, since by nature of being born in the flesh, can continually be faithful to God. Thus, it is his duty to avert sin by dwelling on His strivings. But if he commits sin, he should quickly return to God by His strivings for the forgiveness He reserved in Christ. It is the only way to sustain a firm relationship with Him.
See, God’s anger against sinful deeds is subsided only by seeking His forgiveness. It subsides because He has cast all His anger against all men on His Son by killing Him on the cross. Unless restitution for unfaithfulness is made, none can escape His consequences. “But if the man has no relative to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution which is made for the wrong must go to the LORD for the priest, besides the ram of atonement, by which atonement is made for him” (Num. 5:8). Restitution by blood for unfaithfulness toward God has long been a condition of God for man to live. Everyone that made restitution by the blood of animal was permitted to live. God appointed it for forgiveness and bore it as He waited to lay the entire burden of sin on His Son. When He did it, they as well as we received everlasting forgiveness and a way to remain intimate with Him. So, if we seek forgiveness by realizing its necessity, we escape His fury.
Remember! God has reduced our lifetime to 120 years. Why should we provoke Him to reduce it to something else or deduct some entities of our life? Instead, we should press Him to bless us by the power of faith we received to trust Him. “But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor misfortune” (1 Kings 5:4). Because Solomon by faith at a very young age sought God’s presence in asking for wisdom, he perpetually gained His approval. So, desire rest; desire peace and blessings. Then you shall bring God’s strivings in you to fruition. A life controlled by God is a life fulfilled. Each one should seek to be controlled by Him. It is not as if Solomon had no adversaries, but they were kept at bay. God quieted down his surroundings. It was not by his efforts that he escaped misfortune, but his willingness to bring God’s strivings in him to completion. So, have God in mind the whole time and all the time as if there’s nothing else to do and you will have a fulfilled life.
By letting God’s strivings see completion believers have a comprehension that is far greater than anything. “So that He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety” (Job 5:11). They are defined as the lowly and peace seekers. They are willing because of that which God will do for them. They seek fortune and adversary-ridden environment. They desire for God to supplant the things, situations and people that hinder their progress. So, they have the mind of God in fulfilling His purpose toward creation. By them God exhibits Himself as the Living One whose power is known only to those who subject to Him and the following stands true till the end of time. “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, ‘I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go’” (Isa. 48:17).
Do you desire to profit and so are willing to learn the mighty ways of profiting? Let not man deceive you or even your thoughts for that matter. Let not the things you see make you think that there’s nothing better. If you can subject yourself to God so that He shows you the way you should go, you are on your way to an unfathomable profit. It will be delightful and you will be short of words to express it. Only be sure that as you follow His lead no contamination of the flesh interferes. Contamination delays profit and turns you impatient for the things you wish you had not done. “You rely on your sword, you commit abominations and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?” (Ezek. 33:26). Sin will stall God’s commitment toward you. So, do not let your commitment to Him dilute as you let His strivings in you reach completion.
But if you break your commitment and you go wayward, God will still find you except that He alters the course. For He said, “And I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness” (Zech. 8:8). He will first have to strive with you again by the virtue of choosing you through His Son. This striving will be entirely different from His earlier ones. It is designed in such a way that you realize your stranding Him regarding His strivings in you. It is rather a lengthy road and very tiresome. So, do not stay in sin. Return to Him now. If you sin, quickly resort to His forgiveness. Do not desire to sin. Mutilate it by His strivings in you. You will profit.