“Wretched man that I am!…[but] Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our LORD!”
When we were kids, there was a time when we saw the man (or woman) struggling to hear two separate beings speaking into each ear. In our minds, we can see a person plagued by a red-clothed being on one shoulder, near one ear; however, on the opposite shoulder, there is a white-clothed being on the other shoulder, near the other ear. In the middle, the person struggles to listen to both.
In my lifetime of coaching cross-country, I have seen a similar struggle. Student-runners love their parents, respect their advice, and seek to please them (as they should), so why shouldn’t they listen to their parents’ advice on race day?
Then there’s the cross country coach, the one the student-runners see most every day (of the season, at least) who imparts wisdom to them, teaching them throughout each day of practice, who seeks the best interests of the runner and of the team. The runners may even have a close relationship with their coach (like that of an aunt or uncle), so when the coach speaks, the runners listen and apply their words to a particular course.
Therein resides a small issue. Student-runners wish to please both their parents and their coach, but what happens when the sound advice spoken into each ear of the runner collides and does not speak the same truth. What is a young student-runner to do when she listens to her coach, but in doing so, displeases her parent (or vice versa)?
For the student-runner, this causes a quandary within their heart.
The Bible speaks of how we are often found within a similar quandary, even though our hearts belong to Christ Jesus. Still, we live with a human-will that seeks to please himself/herself while at the same time pleasing God.
A Quandary.
A Struggle.
A Daily Discipline.
A Never-Ending Conflict—–Or Is It?
We do not need this on-going conflict to plague us any longer, but do not believe me; BELIEVE (instead) the Word of God.
The Apostle Paul spoke often of the internal-struggle that comes daily upon us, & he speaks of the power to overcome this daily internal-struggle.
“For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
(Romans 7: 14-8:1)
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
Wretched man that I am!
Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our LORD!
So then, on one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Satan whispers into our ears his lies, BUT we who accept the LORD Jesus Christ as Savior BELONG TO GOD!
Satan seeks to destroy us: our lives, our marriages, our inner peace, and our witness and testimony of how Jesus changes us, BUT WE BELONG TO GOD!
Satan speaks lies because he is the father of lies,
BUT THANKS BE…
GOD IS THE FATHER OF TRUTH!!!
“Wretched man that I am!
(Romans 7: 24-25)
Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our LORD!”