…you are that one’s slaves whom you obey… —Romans 6:16
{CHAMBERS} “The
first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls
and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to
whatever it may be. […] There is no power within the human soul itself that is
capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. […]
(Remember what lust is— “I must have it now,” whether it is the lust of the
flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come
from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield
yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating
power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. […] Even though you say,
“Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like,” you will know you can’t. You
will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded
to it. It is easy to sing, “He will break every fetter,” while at the same time
living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break
every kind of slavery in any person’s life.”
{ELGIN} There is a commercial that offers people to
get money today that they will be receiving monthly or yearly until some time
in the future. The people in the
commercial say “It’s my money and I want it now!” Sounds reasonable. But what you are not told is that you are not
going to get all of your money. There is
a heavy price to be paid for immediate gratification. There are income tax preparers that offer an
immediate refund. What they really mean
is that if the tax payer will give them a portion of the return, they will give
the tax payer the balance that day. They
can have it now, but there is a cost. Both
examples are an indication of desperation.
Of something inside the people that says “ignore the consequences, and
seize the moment”. That is the way it is
when we yield to sin. We ignore the cost
and seize the moment. To resist sin is
not something you can do just because you are a Christian. I am certain you already know that, from
experience. But because you are a Christian, you can resist sin with the help the Lord provides.
(James 4:7) “Submit
yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Because you are submitted to God you can
resist the devil … temptation, escape the bondage of sin. When Jesus faced temptation He responded with
the Word of God. His focus was not on
Himself but on His Father. When Satan
said “turn those stones into bread”, he was talking to the one who would turn
water into wine. It was not out of the
realm of possibility. Certainly there
was physical need. But Jesus, instead, chose to focus on the
Father, not himself. (Matthew 4:4) “Man does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The point was
made again after Jesus met the woman at the well. (John
4:31-34) “Meanwhile his disciples
urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat
that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could
someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of
him who sent me and to finish his work.””
The source of our spiritual strength is not our determination, but our
submission.
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