You Are Not Alone

My Utmost For His Highest

‘Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a nature that renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do. When the Lord initially comes in contact with our conscience, the first thing our conscience does is awaken our will, and our will always agrees with God. Yet you say, “But I don’t know if my will is in agreement with God.” Look to Jesus and you will find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with Him every time. What causes you to say “I will not obey” is something less deep and penetrating than your will. It is perversity or stubbornness, and they are never in agreement with God. The most profound thing in a person is his will, not sin.’ CHAMBERS

Do you struggle with doing the wrong thing when you know what the right thing is? Paul wrote about that in Romans 7

(15)  For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.  (16)  If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.  (17)  But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  (18)  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.  (19)  For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.  (20)  Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  (21)  I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.  (22)  For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

That struggle, as much as you may hate it, is actually a testimony to the reality of our two natures … Spiritual and Carnal or Sinful.  When I struggle as Paul described, it is proof …. evidence ….  of the veracity of my faith in Jesus and the Word of God.  The things that we ‘hate’ … that we ‘practice’ vary from person to person … some sins seem trivial and others .. horrific … but in any case they all serve to remind us of the fact that we need a Savior … So am I saying that it is OK? Just part of the journey before we get to heaven?   NO!  Sin is never OK. But … it is important that we understand what is happening to us and in us .. and to remember, as Paul wrote

Romans 7:24-25a O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  (25)  I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!

I want you to know that you are not alone in your struggle with sin ..

1 Corinthians 10:13  No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

The Word tells us there are things that we can do to strengthen the inner man … Psalms 119:11 says to ‘hide the Word in our hearts so we won’t sin.  Joshua 1:8,9 says that we should meditate on the Word .. and to do what it says, to be doers and not hearers only … and then we will be successful.

2 Timothy 3:16-17  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,  (17)  that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Here is the deal … we could not defeat sin in our own strength and will before we were Christians and we can’t do it now … It is only through Jesus …

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)