“Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." John 21:18 NIV
A young Christian has independence and an attitude of "I will do what I want to do. I will serve God as I choose." This is an attitude of inexperience and immaturity. We all have gone through this attitude. There is no firm commitment or devotion to Jesus. Just salvation only. But we are made for more. We are built for God. Why? Because He created us and put His Spirit in us. Yet we can say no to Jesus and follow Him in submission. Because God loves us, He will continue to pursue us and bring us to the point of humiliation and even embarrassment. Why? Because He wants the best for us and to use us the way we are designed.
When we come to Jesus, we begin to lose more and more of our independence. Our life is not ours. We belong to God; we are identified with Him. What God expects is complete oneness and intimacy with Him. Jesus said in John 15:5 NKJV, "Abide in Me, and I will abide in you." Our Christian life is not about doing or serving, but about being like Him in all our lives, complete with Him.
God's will for us is sexual purity to avoid sexual sin. Why? Because sex binds us to someone in unity, with our bodies, minds, spirits, emotions, choices, and feelings. God calls us to attach to Him so we can carry out our calling and know what we are to do in this life. Sexual sin will take us from God's plan and unity with Himself.
Jesus makes us a child of God so we can follow Him and serve Him. He makes us saints and holy so we can fellowship with our Father and live in freedom. Because of our identification with our Lord, we can sacrifice ourselves to Him. God loves us so much that he will not leave us alone. He will come to us as Jesus came to Peter and asked, "Do you love Me?"
We do not know the depth of our identification with our Lord Jesus until we deny Him or say no to Him and then He comes to us and says, “Do you love me?”
[As adapted from The Bondage Breaker and Stomping Out The Darkness by Dr. Neil Anderson and Dr. Dave Park.]