Sometimes God’s people become tired and bored of God (Isaiah 43:22). They don’t want to serve God any more, and their hearts are not in it (Malachi 1:13). They just go through the motions.
God is the most amazing and powerful person in our lives. He is an infinite fountain of life. It doesn’t make sense to become bored with such an amazing, infinitely glorious person and find the mundane things of the world more interesting. But irrational things like this happen because of Satan.
One of the most common reasons people become weary with God is that they get under the Law. They begin doing things in their own flesh. They think they know what they need to do to please God and then they rely on themselves to do it. This can quickly become exhausting.
The Law is NOT the power of God to salvation. It is the opposite. In fact, the Law is the ministry of death (2 Cor. 3:7). The law tells us about sin, and then we get into bondage to sin because of the flesh. The Law is the ministry of condemnation (2 Cor. 3:9). When we sin and fail, then Satan condems us. Other people condemn us. We condemn ourselves. The Law proclaims our guilt. Those who are under the Law are under a curse (Galatians 3:10-11). God curses those under the Law because their flesh is not according to him. The law produces wrath – the wrath of God (Romans 4:15).
When a person tries to keep the Law in the power of his flesh, he will fail. Then he will become miserable. He will probably become a hypocrite, hiding the bad reality of his life from others. He will condemn others because he sees they don’t measure up to the Law, and he might become proud because he thinks he is keeping some parts of the Law. But ultimately he will condemn himself because he sees his own failures. He will end up fighting against God because he sees that God is somehow his enemy who is constantly judging him.
When a person is under the Law, they are living in the power of the flesh. God has sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts to give us power to live for God. The only way to keep God’s word is by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is to be supernatural, lived in God’s strength, not our own.
The solution for living under the law is living by the Spirit. “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Galatians 5:18).
Jesus once met a woman at a well of water who had committed adultery and gone through a string of different men. But Jesus didn’t whip out the Law, bonk her over the head, and condemn her (John 4). Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the world (John 3:17).
Instead, Jesus talked to the woman about thirst.
The woman was at a well that had been dug by Jacob. Jesus said if a person drank of this well they would be thirsty again. In some ways, Jacob’s well represents the Law because the Law was given to Jacob’s descendants. The Law was the means of their spiritual supply. The Law was weak because of the flesh. The Law will not satisfy us, but it will leave us thirsty. No matter how hard we try to keep the Law, we can’t.
We need the Holy Spirit to satisfy our thirst. Jesus told the woman at the well he would give her living water, and she would never thirst again (John 4:12-14). The woman wanted this water.
Jesus said if we believe in him, we will never hunger and never thirst (John 6:35). Jesus is the bread of life. He is the living fountain of water.
If our thirst is satisfied with the Holy Spirit, then we will not need satisfaction from sin. We will be satisfied with God. Furthermore, we will be empowered to live and walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.
God is the only one who can truly satisfy us. In his presence is fullness of joy, at his right hand are pleasures forever (Psalm 16:11). Do we believe this? This is the fact about God. This is the reality. If we can believe this reality and see God as he is, then we will experience the reality of living water flowing into our souls. Obeying God will be a delight because we will experience more of him.
Following God is not about duty and forcing ourselves to do religious things. It’s not about living under the Law by the power of the flesh. It’s about drinking of the Holy Spirit and then no longer being thirsty. We need to delight ourselves in God. Enjoy him. He is awesome. Then we will find supernatural strength to live according to his word.
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