THE VICTOR’S MENTALITY 26 (Guarding Your Heart from Legalism & Self-effort 2)

My beloved readers, I welcome you to today’s article. It’s my sincere prayer that the Lord will speak to you as you read, in Jesus’ name. In the last article, I started sharing about guarding your heart against legalism and self-effort, two of the four things I shared that happen when the heart isn’t covered with the breastplate of righteousness.

Righteousness is what should guard us from all of these:

1.  Condemnation

2.  Comparison

3.  Legalism

4.  Self-effort

When you know who you are—that you are righteous, that Christ has brought you to a position where He stands before God—you won’t entertain condemnation or comparison. If Jesus Himself, through His blood, brought me to a place of undeserved privilege, then no one can condemn me because He who has the right to do so doesn’t. Instead, He has elevated me above every principality and power.

Excuse me, why would I stoop so low as to compare myself with someone else when God has identified me with His Son? Oh, we don’t know our position; that’s why we can fall into comparing ourselves with others.

In the last article, we explored the differences between legalism and self-effort. A simple, straightforward distinction is that legalism is a root problem, while self-effort is a fruit problem. We started discussing these last two, but we couldn’t finish. By God’s grace, I hope to do justice to self-effort today. To catch up and remind yourself of this wonderful truth, check this link.

I shared that legalism and self-effort are similar in outlook, but a legalistic believer will always exert themselves, trying to prove before God that they’re better than their neighbor and deserve better. I said a lot about legalism in the last article, so here, I’ll focus specifically on self-effort.

Remember, we’re discussing the victor’s mentality, referencing Ephesians 6:10, which speaks about putting on the whole armor of God to keep winning from the perspective of Christ’s victory. Self-effort is when the heart tries to fight without the armor (righteousness).

When you try to overcome the devil, sin, or the flesh without a foundational understanding and consciousness that your standing is righteous—that you’re already righteous before God and not trying to get there—the devil, flesh, and sin will overcome you. You’ll always be a victim, and that’s not God’s plan for your life. God’s plan is for you to keep winning—to continue winning. But when you carry a burden God never asked you to carry, trusting in your own strength rather than resting in the righteousness of Christ you’ve received, you give the devil an inroad to victimize you.

Look at what Jesus says:

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 NKJV)

Self-effort is a life detached from the vine, just like a branch trying to produce fruit on its own. It may look busy—like leaves shaking in the wind—but it will never yield fruit because the source of life is missing.

Abiding means depending, resting, and drawing supply from Christ—not from your own willpower or discipline. “Without Me, you can do nothing” exposes the emptiness of self-effort. No wonder Paul says nothing good lies in the flesh. That’s why we need to be conscious of God’s indwelling presence within us—that He who began a good work in us is perfecting it day by day. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to do His work and have His way within us. Our measure shouldn’t be how long we’ve prayed, fasted, or acted, but how much we’re submitting to the Holy Spirit’s influence.

You might be praying and doing various activities without submitting to the Holy Spirit. When we don’t keep Christ in view as the object of our acceptance before God and the source of our daily living, and carry this perspective into our society, we’ve already begun submitting to the Holy Spirit. This is the secret to everyday holiness. Wake up each day reminding yourself that you’ve been bought with a price—the precious blood of Jesus. Remind yourself you’re the Father’s beloved because of that same precious blood. Carry this perspective into your day, and you’ll see how you’ll live a holy life without even thinking about it.

I remember those days when I’d have a strong determination not to sin. I’d say, “Today, I’m going to live a perfect, sinless, holy life in all I do.” The funny thing is, before I stepped out of the house, I’d already committed more than one offense. Determination is good—I think I’ve talked about it in previous articles—but determination in yourself won’t help you live a holy life.

When you’re determined and resolute in your heart to keep your gaze on Christ, refusing to see yourself apart from Him, that’s different. Even when you sin or err, instead of continuing on that fleshy path or resorting to self-effort, you must refocus your gaze on Christ. He is your reality.

I’ll leave you with this scripture:

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6 NKJV)

When you don’t see yourself as already blessed, forgiven, and righteous in Christ, you’ll always strive by effort to achieve, which is an endless cycle. You won’t attain any of these by effort. Rather, rest in the truth that you are already forgiven, already righteous, and already blessed. Hallelujah!

Written by Peter Ayoola Fakeye—PAF