Wrestling Match!
Do you ever feel like you wrestle so hard with your sin nature and slowly-being-sanctified self?
I sure do.
Sometimes, that feeling can get me down, feeling discouraged and defeated... Like I should just throw in the towel! But someone recently told me that when the Bible says to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12) that is indicative of a fight- which means the resistance we feel between the Spirit of God within us and our flesh nature are literally warring inside of us.
Again in Ephesians 6:12, we see that we "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Did you catch that? We Wrestle.
In my morning devotions today, I was reading about how Jesus' death was paid to make conquering power over sin and death available to us. Complete victory over the enemy. And the little prayer at the end of my devotional said, and I quote, "...Help me never to take it [all that has been accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus] for granted and to grow continually in an understanding of what that purchased victory means for You and for me." When I read that, I was already feeling pretty defeated because I feel like this whole sanctification thing is taking so long. In my fully selfish, impatient, morning self, I allowed how I felt about my capabilities to become more pleasing in God's sight to obstruct my view of what REALLY WAS.
Even though I do not feel victorious doesn't take away from the fact that Christ in me is victorious. My senior pastor from when I was growing up once told me that sometimes he had to look at things with an attitude of "action over emotion." I never forgot how that challenged me to look at how I felt about serving the Lord, or regarding doing the right thing. And looking back at some of the mistakes I have made, using that simple rule of thumb would have saved me a whole lot of strife!
Going back to the prayer on the bottom of my devotion, I think it is a great prayer to pray that we don't take Christ's sacrifice and victory for granted. Letting our emotion get in the way of what the cross has freed us from and purchased for us sounds silly, yet I know that I do it more than I would like to admit (like, everyday... multiple times a day... thank God for grace!).
So I am challenging both you and me to NOT let our emotions get the best of us. It won't be easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, but we have got to wrestle. Put up a fight. When your emotions are sabotaging you from running towards the heavenward goal, pray for the supernatural strength to put forth godly actions that will shift your emotions in line with the Lord's will (submitting to God).
Get back in the ring, champ! I am rootin' fer ya!
XOXO,
Melly
I sure do.
Sometimes, that feeling can get me down, feeling discouraged and defeated... Like I should just throw in the towel! But someone recently told me that when the Bible says to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12) that is indicative of a fight- which means the resistance we feel between the Spirit of God within us and our flesh nature are literally warring inside of us.
Again in Ephesians 6:12, we see that we "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Did you catch that? We Wrestle.
In my morning devotions today, I was reading about how Jesus' death was paid to make conquering power over sin and death available to us. Complete victory over the enemy. And the little prayer at the end of my devotional said, and I quote, "...Help me never to take it [all that has been accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus] for granted and to grow continually in an understanding of what that purchased victory means for You and for me." When I read that, I was already feeling pretty defeated because I feel like this whole sanctification thing is taking so long. In my fully selfish, impatient, morning self, I allowed how I felt about my capabilities to become more pleasing in God's sight to obstruct my view of what REALLY WAS.
Even though I do not feel victorious doesn't take away from the fact that Christ in me is victorious. My senior pastor from when I was growing up once told me that sometimes he had to look at things with an attitude of "action over emotion." I never forgot how that challenged me to look at how I felt about serving the Lord, or regarding doing the right thing. And looking back at some of the mistakes I have made, using that simple rule of thumb would have saved me a whole lot of strife!
Going back to the prayer on the bottom of my devotion, I think it is a great prayer to pray that we don't take Christ's sacrifice and victory for granted. Letting our emotion get in the way of what the cross has freed us from and purchased for us sounds silly, yet I know that I do it more than I would like to admit (like, everyday... multiple times a day... thank God for grace!).
So I am challenging both you and me to NOT let our emotions get the best of us. It won't be easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, but we have got to wrestle. Put up a fight. When your emotions are sabotaging you from running towards the heavenward goal, pray for the supernatural strength to put forth godly actions that will shift your emotions in line with the Lord's will (submitting to God).
Get back in the ring, champ! I am rootin' fer ya!
XOXO,
Melly
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