Living For Christ and Not The World Part One:

We have this desire in us to do what we want to do, we as people do not enjoy being told what to do.  I think that is hard for us to give up, but as we grow up and mature we begin to realize that we have to start doing things we don’t want to do.  In order to have a successful marriage one makes sacrifices for their spouse, in order to get a promotion at work one does things they don’t want to do and takes order from those above them.  Here in 1^st Peter chapter 2 Peter tells us that we must obey God, that we must crave His word, and grow in Him.  “So get rid of all malicious behavior and deceit. Don’t just pretend to be good! Be done with hypocrisy and jealousy and backstabbing.  You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation. Cry out for this nourishment as a baby cries for milk, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.”(1^st Peter 2:1-3)

Peter is telling us some pretty hard truths, He is saying if you want to be a true follower then you will get rid of the sin in your life, you will desire to follow and obey God.  You are to no longer pretend to be a follower but you will follow.  You are not going to follow to make yourself look good but because you love God.  If we want God to work in our lives we must first come to desire Him, we must allow Him to work in our lives, we must look deep into His word and see what we must change in order to grow.  It’s not enough to just be good, or to try to be good we must give up our lives to God, to allow Him to work in our lives to guide and change us.  We must stop living for us and start living for God.  Many people have trouble with this because they have become accustomed to living a life of sin. They think that God is asking them to stop having fun, to give up money or a job.  We have trouble with this idea of living for God because the world around is saying live for yourself, do what is that makes you happy, when we need to doing what makes God happy.

“It takes a lot for us to comprehend God’s total hatred for sin. We make excuses like, “Yes, I am prideful at times, but everyone struggles with pride.” However, God says in Proverbs 8:13, “I hate pride and arrogance.” You and I are not allowed to tell Him how much He can hate it. He can hate and punish it as severely as His justice demands. God never excuses sin. And He is always consistent with that ethic. Whenever we start to question whether God really hates sin, we have only to think of the cross, where His Son was tortured, mocked, and beaten because of sin. Our sin. No question about it: God hates and must punish sin. And He is totally just and fair in doing so.”

Chan, Francis (2010-01-01). Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (p. 32). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.