What are you working on?

How often do you here someone say, "I know I have a problem with ____, but I'm working on it."?

Possibly anger, over spending or time management.  We often take time to reflect on a weaknesses, then determine to pray about that area of struggle and, seeking God's approval, present a plan to improve that characteristic of our lives.

There was a time when I had let my love for recreational reading eclipse my time in the Word of God.  I wasn't  "making the best use of the time, because the days are evil."(Ephesians 5:16 ESV) 
So, my plan?  For every hour I read my Bible, I could read an hour in another book. I thought it seemed a reasonable way to approach shifting my habits.  Looking back, however, I see that by setting up the system of one-to-one exchange, I was stepping back into a works based mentality. I was trying to earn my way to guiltless reading rather than seeking to enjoy God's Word as the love letter it was intended to be.  My desire was to get more Bible reading time, true, but my heart attitude was not to know Christ better or to see the heart of God for me or to recognize the Holy Spirit's work in my life. I sought to manage my time better and while reading the Word of God more. A Check List mindset.

The Transformational Good News sets us free from working on not sinning.  Working on not sinning is setting ourselves up for one sort of failure or another.  It leads to pride in ourselves when the goal is accomplished rather than recognizing God's work of grace in our lives.  Or, when we fail directly,  it leads to self-condemnation and fear.


But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7 ESV)

We are heirs according to the hope of eternal life! According to His own mercy. How? By nothing we have done, but by justification by His grace! So let us step back from working on not sinning. Let us focus instead on allowing the God who has saved us to renew our minds through the Holy Spirit.