There is a critical obstacle to your best life, and you will not like what it is because, left to ourselves, we all love this obstacle. The obstacle stands in the path of the way God designed life to work - faith.

Faith is a critical issue in life. It is critical because God has built the entire system of human existence upon faith. Everything God has instituted for human behavior, done correctly, requires faith. Everything in the Old or New Testament is built on faith in God, that He is PERFECT, and that His ways are the right ways.

The Apostle Paul Identifies It

When the Apostle Paul talks about the struggle in his own life between sin and doing right, he is talking about faith or the Fundamental Choice. He faced the same issues you face as you live and desire to make changes.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. – Romans 7:18-19

This faith issue is tied to what God says about the hearts of unbelievers. Look at the following:

As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit; The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” – Romans 3:10-18

True of Believers Too

Believers have this same sinful tendency. Do you realize the above verse is also true of believers? It started in the Garden of Eden and continues to this day. Notice the common theme of each of the following verses:

…everyone did what was right in his own eyes. – Judges 17:6

So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, To walk in their own counsels. – Psalm 81:12

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding. - Proverbs 3:5

Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. - Proverbs 3:7

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But he who heeds counsel is wise. - Proverbs 12:15

He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered. - Proverbs 28:26

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight! - Isaiah 5:21

…Do not be wise in your own opinion. - Romans 12:16

…does not seek its own… - 1 Corinthians 13:5

For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. - Philippians 2:21

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy - 2 Timothy 3:2 

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; - Jude 16

The Critical Obstacle to Your Best Life

Those verses describe people who are seeking their own way. Seeking MY way is the opposite of faith, trusting God, seeking His way. Making life about yourself, seeking your own way, and selfishness are the names we use for the critical obstacle to your best life.

Looking beyond your own strength and your way removes the biggest obstacle to transformation. All change comes from outside you; otherwise, it is not change! You have no “change answers” inside you. Christ lives inside believers, but He came from “outside,” and trusting Him means you’re no longer trusting proudly in your own strengths.