We're being dealt with.

Shining as Stars

12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Are we aware of the fact that we are being dealt with; it is not that we decide to do things.

"Moralists and religious conformists are doing it all themselves, and that is why they are so proud of themselves. They get up on Sunday morning instead of spending the morning in bed, and they go to church. They do it because they have decided to do it, not because they have been moved. They are in control the whole time; and having done it, they preen themselves with their wonderful, ennobling ideals."

Sounds sort of self absorbed, they can do it on their own, independent kind of mentality, no?
For me, I know that God has been working through me and in me in all different ways possible these past couple of month. But in me, I still have that sense of I can do everything all by MYSELF mentality and I'm afraid to ask for help, or it's more like I'm too stubborn to. But from the quote above, I realized the mentality I had before, it was to dress up Sunday's best for God and I was letting God allow me to dress nicely for Him. He was my focus. More and more as months passed by I let the idea of God slip away from my mind and I get up on Sunday morning because I decided to do it and I decided to wear something nice. It no longer became a God thing but a me thing.

God said it is God who works in us to WILL and to ACT according to his good purpose.
That means we are aware of the power of God dealing with us, surging and rising within us, and we are amazed and astonished.

I don't want to be a moralist or a religious conformist, I want to be the one who can say, "In everything I do, God is working in me." He's the one who causes me to act the way Iact and he's the one who causes me to will also.

And out of all this, "It is not I. This is not the sort of person I am. It is God doing something; it is Christ dwelling within me; it is the Holy Spirit who is in me. I am taken up beyond myself, and I thank God for it."

Every time I see the work of God working in me, I get so moved, astonished and it just draws me into more mystery about why God would choose such a horrible person like me because I really don't deserve any of this, especially now.
I don't want to forget the Holy Spirit, I don't want to forget God and have him stop working in me, and in order to do that, I must let Him instead of letting myself walk in this journey called life. I'm willing to let God work, and I know many times I still want to do things my way, but I know that way would lead to disaster.

Lord, please let me know that you're the one dealing with me and let me allow you to because I know I can't do it alone and I know that if I continue to do it on my own, it's not going to look good.
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I thought this was kind of funny. Maybe Batman has even heard this verse, Phillipians 2:12 before, cus he used it the right way. If we want to damn ourselves, then we do it on our own.