Anyone who has ever risen from the couch and declared their intentions to work for the kingdom of God has felt the resistance of our negative human nature.
Whenever God’s children feel a passion to demonstrate their convictions, it would be a good idea to be prepared for resistance and even persecution. It’s not only our intimidation about what others might think about us, but it’s also the challenge of imposing discipline over our own will.
It’s true we will face adversity, and it’s disheartening to realize that most people are not interested in our vision, which is why we must stay focused and remember our accountability is to God. An important aspect of spiritual warfare is between what he wants and how determined we are to do it.
It’s less painful to live according to our perceptions than to accomplish what the Lord has planned for us. Our human nature is clever and feels perfectly satisfied living in the apathy of denial. With the natural ability to have selective hearing and seeing, a person can go through their entire life living however they want instead of allowing God to open their spiritual eyes.
There is an old saying, “As we discover what God wants us to be, we are then faced with deciding just how much we will do.” When we are convicted to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, we are setting ourselves up to be tested within the deepest recesses of our being. Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated because feeling good about ourselves is a huge part of our psychological and emotional stability. However, when we place too much emphasis on our emotional feelings and not enough on being obedient to God, we are already deceived and defeated by compromise.