Circles - Part 1

There's this analogy used in Christian dialogue that considers your life like a circle. You're encouraged to consider a life without Christ - you are at the center of the circle. You do everything for reasons that benefit you. With Christ at the center though, you now do things motivated by and for Him. Here's a classic example (notice the chaos of the dots in the first compared to the order in the second).

No offense to my teachers and brothers out there, but this analogy is grossly unfair. It's a great cause for doubt and can be paralyzing under the right (well, wrong, really) circumstances. It gives the impression that there are only two possibilities - sinner or saved. People, like me, believe that if you've really been saved, you move into the God centered circle. But there's a problem. I still sin and I'm still selfish.Thinking like that leads to serious doubt for the young Christian.

The Christ-centered and self-centered circles merge

Reality for the Christian is more like this. Our circles overlap. There are times that our actions are still selfishly motivated and times that we are focused on what God would have us do. There are even times when we are motivated for the good of Christ's kingdom but our sinful nature leaks through anywway. We flit back and forth in different seasons of our lives, years, days, even hours. Galatians 5:17 says "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want."

See, the point is that on this side of Heaven, we are in constant struggle between the Spirit in us and our sinful nature. All of us are struggling every day. For some of us, our "Me" circle is bigger and we're motivated by that sin nature more than by God. For mature Christians, the "God" circle is bigger, but make no mistake, the sin nature is still present. So don't assume that because you give into sin or struggle against it means that you aren't really saved. The fact that the struggle exists is proof of the Spirit's presence in you.