Religious compliance without daily reliance on the living Jesus falls far short of true Christianity. Learn to daily rely on the risen Jesus not just to outwardly comply with religious roles and rules. The kingdom of God is the place of complete reliance on and surrender to the living Jesus. Find that place in your heart. True Christianity is about Christ-reliance, not about self-reliance.

The human mind and heart are easily deceived by fallacies and illusions. Listening intently to your conscience and the risen Jesus will keep you on the path of honesty and truth. Listen to God’s still small voice within you! Say, “Speak Lord for your servant is listening.”

It takes courage to rely on the risen Jesus and to deny and defy your own desires, but that’s the calling of true Christianity. Christ-reliance is essential for a Christian lifestyle. Letting Christ continually live and work in you produces abounding hope, but self-reliance produces pride, alienation, exhaustion, and disappointment. Christians who neglect to train their mind and heart in Christ-reliance often wonder how they get so far off track.

Self-forgiveness relies on self-effort and self-perception. God’s forgiveness is freely given to those who turn away from self and rely on the risen Jesus and His sacrifice on the Cross.

“Self-forgiveness” without the ongoing experience and inner cleansing of God’s forgiveness is psychobabble. “Self-forgiveness” tries to erase guilt by denial or will power, but God’s forgiveness removes guilt from those who will humbly and remorsefully confess what they have done to cause it and rely on the living Jesus Christ instead of self to forgive them. 1 John 1:9 and Romans 8:1.

Human reason is unreliable. Look at the mess it has led us to. It’s time to rely on the risen Jesus and be led by His still small voice. To listen to and rely on Jesus is an amazing adventure!