"Although your goal is to love God purely for Himself, and for His sake alone, you have to realize that in this life it is almost impossible to love God with total unselfishness. God has to do that miraculous work in you, and it takes a long time."
So with the New Year comes the usual resolutions and positive thinking. This is the year you're gonna change, right?
Common teaching from the pulpit will concern topics such as being more devoted and living wholly for the Lord in 2011. Thinking that one day you will turn your life around and everything will be different is a common thought process. Now it is possible to turn your life around, to make a resolution and follow through with it. People do it everyday. The concern in the Christian life is what causes the change.
It is possible to do good works from your own will and strength (outside the will of the Holy Spirit). Even unbelievers accomplish good works in this sense. The difference between an earthly good work and an eternal good work is not that one merely has a Christian label on it. So how do you know when you working from your own will and strength and that of the Holy Spirit?
