With regard to efforts we should make to reconcile with God and achieve His righteousness in our heart and life, we can get confused with the greatness of Biblical demand. God's moral law asks us to have heart free of any sinful wishes, to love our enemies and besides, to be obedient and joyful. But, apostle Paul says:

"I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:18.24)

God's moral law asks us to do impossible, and again, apostle John says: "His commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3), and Christ himself says: "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:30)

This apparent contradiction may seem insoluble, unless we read Biblical report on the conversation between Christ and a rich Jewish nobleman:

"Jesus looked at him and loved him. 'One thing you lack,' he said. 'Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.' At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!' The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, 'Who then can be saved?'

Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.'" (Mark 10:21-27)

The word of God does not ask us to do what falls within God's competence and what appears to be impossible for us. Only God can save us from sin and guilt. Only God can change our heart and give us the fruits of spirit. That yoke is light, because it is not a result of ours, but of God's power and intervention:

"It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." (Philippians 2:13)

The law asks us to do impossible, but God does not ask us to do impossible. The court in which our prayers appear today is not a court requiring the sinner's justice, but the one in which the sinner is awarded justice upon his confession of his own guilt. Christ has not come to punish us, but to save us. His mercy is with us until we despise it. To live with God is magnificent indeed. But, we must choose God as our own Saviour and rely on his salutary power.

Christ's yoke (which we carry all day long) is light, but not easy to be chosen (at the time of prayer, i.e. meeting with God).

Therefore, we must make utmost endeavours not to achieve salvation, but to chose salvation.

We choose our Saviour only through understanding and acceptance of his character. Any other motive or approach to God would not be righteous.

We choose Him in the way that by knowing God through prayer and His word we achieve penitence.

"With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O Lord! I will keep thy statutes. I cry to thee; save me, that I may observe thy testimonies. I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in thy words. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate upon thy promise. Hear my voice in thy steadfast love; O Lord, in thy justice preserve my life." (Psalm 119:145-149)

Simple reading of the word of God and thinking over the kindness of God results in God's answering our persistent prayers. And all this implies a heavy struggle with oneself and God, as our sinful nature cannot bear contact with the Holy and Righteous. It has "to fall on the rock and break".

Remember Jacob. Jacob means a swindler. Jacob was a swindler. That was his nature. That was him. But Jacob fought with God. Him, a swindler wrestled with the Holy and Righteous God. In prayers, he fought for undeserved blessing. He did not count on his justice, as he was aware of his guilt. He counted on God's mercy.

With sincere confession and repentance this sinful man begged the angel of vow asking for His mercy:

"Then he said, 'Let me go, for the day is breaking.' But Jacob said, 'I will not let you go, unless you bless me.'"

"In the womb he grasped his brother's heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name of renown!" (Genesis 32:26; Hosea 12:3-5)

Jacob struggled with God and won. He got a new name - Israel and a new character. The whole nation was given his name, which means: "One who struggles with God" (See Genesis 32:28). This is the name we get, if we are faithful to God; we are a spiritual Israel. The word of God calls upon us to follow. The example of Jacob, father of faith:

"Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called." (1 Timothy 6:12)

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13)

Let us consider what is meant by "struggle with God". That means: trust in God, in spite of resistance of our sinful nature, distorted consciousness, obscure mind and limiting circumstances, in the sense that He, being love, will fulfill all that He promise. That further means "to choose God", by our own will and in spite of our nature, and trusting His promised intervention and offered power, to live according to His will.

Because we choose God independently of the attitude of our nature, we must not try in our prayer to provoke some strong feelings (nor a feeling of our own sinfulness, nor a feeling of God's acceptance). Otherwise, it would mean that we rely on a power of our ego, instead of a simple accepting the rational revelation we are given by God about our sinfulness and of a simple belief in God that He will, because of His promise, answer our prayer.

It is very dangerous to try to serve God with our nature, because the will power whereby we obey God's law must not be drawn from our ego, our natural motives and feelings, but from God. It means that we must not try in our prayer to become satisfied with ourselves, but with God. Instead of building a confidence in our character, we ought to believe in God's character and to live according to it, relying on the power promised by God.

How will we save ourselves from the trap mentioned, from the attempts to become satisfied with ourselves and serve God with our own righteousness?

A correct understanding of God's character revealed through His law guards us from relying on the power of our nature, but induces us to give up our own righteousness and rely exclusively and only on Christ.

Gaining confidence in God means that we submitted our will to God. In that way, the influence of our sinful nature through suspicion, fear, selfishness, pride and rebellion against God will not affect us, as we no longer rely on the power of our sinful nature, but on God and the power of His unselfish love.

Many religious persons suffer under the burden of their willing efforts to meet the requirements of God's moral law, and at the same time trying to avoid an encounter with God and obedience of their will to Him. Instead dying to their sinful and self-righteous "self", they try to adapt that "self" and get it accustomed to the religious requirements pressing their conscience. Instead of renouncing it, they just sublime it into their zeal. When they are reproached for not having surrendered their hearts to God, they reject that reproach pointing to their religious efforts, or to their sentiments and self-sacrifice as a proof of their devotion.

Only when life temptations break down their castles built in the air, they can understand the real nature of their foundations. But then, self-discouraged, in most cases they give up religion generally, thinking that it cannot represent anything else but that what they have already gained through their previous experience.

Their gloomy descriptions of religious experience reveal their endeavour to meet the requirements of the law of God, by a force of their sinful nature and self-righteous conscience. They have been always afraid of deeper understanding of God and personal contact with Him, so that they have never experienced actual repentance. They have never experienced that "The one standing in Him never fails into sin", since they have never been in Christ.