Do Not Submit

After reading an amazing article, I've been pondering what it means to be free to put my sanctification in God's hands.  For many years, I have been under a religious spirit of "Having begun by the Spirit, [I am] now being perfected by the flesh" (Galatians 3:3).  I've thought a lot about what it means to continually put myself under the waterfall of grace and be washed with the water of His word to be sanctified instead of trying harder and doing better.  God put Christ on the cross a little less than 2000 years ago fully knowing every sin that I would commit.  For me to expect perfection for my life is absurd.  For me to expect never to sin again and beat the mess out of myself each and every time that I do is insane.  It's for freedom that He set me free (Galatians 5:1).  God sees me as a finished product.  When He looks at me, He sees Jesus.  He says I am part of His royal priesthood (1 Peter 3:9).  He knows I will fail and still accepts me.  He knows I will be miserably rebellious and still calls me beloved.  I don't have to get better in my strength!  He started the work.  He will finish it!  HE will make me better.  I don't have to submit again to the religious yoke of slavery.  I can freely submit to the freeing yoke of righteousness (Romans 6:18).  Over and over again, Paul empowers people to walk in the grace of God.  He knows the pain.  He knows the sin.  He knows the destruction.  My crying out for change is evidence that He is working.  He hears my prayers and responds to them.  He works them out in his timing.  He is faithful to finish the work that He started.  "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Romans 11:33).