Why Preach the Gospel?

A few weeks ago I was doing a study on godliness because I wanted to understand what godliness is and how to acquire it. There were several conclusions and points that I came up with:
1. Godliness is a process.
2. Godliness requires training.
3. Godliness requires perseverance.
4. Godliness is by the grace of God.
5. The goal of godliness is to please God.
6. Godliness is through faith.
7. Godliness requires a renewing of your mind, a change in your thinking.
Two points that have been on my mind lately has been #4 Godliness is by God's grace and #6 Godliness is through faith.

The one verse I keep thinking back to is Philippians 4:13, "I can do everything by the power of Christ. He gives me strength." (NIRV)

Have you ever been discouraged because as much as you want to choose to obey God you always fail? I have tried to choose obedience to not yell, to not grow anxious, to not grow stressed out, and I have failed. And as I have failed in my attempts to choose obedience, I have wondered why it is that I am failing...And that is the gospel, that I am a sinner and within myself I cannot obey.

I keep thinking back to Philippians 4:13 because I am learning that faith is a moment by moment part of life which is dependent on God's grace, I can only do by the power of Christ. It is Christ who gives me strength.

What's that mean? It means, I have no power within myself to do what is pleasing to the Lord, but just like salvation comes by grace through faith, so does every moment of our lives. We have no power within ourselves to do what is pleasing to Him, but He gives us the power. This is where I am, understanding why I have often failed in my attempts to be obedient.

I think what I am processing or wanting to learn are the answer to these questions, "How do I put faith into action? What is the difference between my own choosing to obey versus having the faith to obey? What does that look like?"

And again, I think that is the gospel preaching, "Christ gives me strength!" And what is it that He gives me the strength to do? He gives me the strength to do His will, to do what is pleasing in His sight, to glorify Him and to enjoy Him. The chief end of man is not to obey God, we know that we can't obey Him, which is why Christ died on the cross for our sins, the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him...

And I think that's where we have to take our minds captive, understanding WHO God is and what He did for us and realizing WHY we want to please Him, WHY we want to glorify Him and WHY we want to enjoy Him. Should our prayers be more like, "Lord, help me put on the fruit of LOVE so that I may love others as you have loved us that you may be glorified and others may enjoy you too?"

On the flip side, we do have the responsibility to fight against sin...and I'm thinking that the fight against sin is also the gospel preaching, that Christ took on sin for us so that our sins would be washed clean. Therefore, even in our fight against sin, it is a matter of faith, believing that Christ took on sin for us, and trusting in His strength to help us walk away from it.

Why am I working so hard to understand faith? Because I am tired. I have depended on myself and my strength far too long to please God. I want to learn how to let go of myself and to hold tight to the gospel and its power. I want to learn what it means to LIVE by God's grace through faith. The gospel isn't just for salvation, the gospel is for living!

Thoughts to be continued...