Thursday, November 8, 2012

PEELING AWAY THE FLESH

Today is a new day. I will let go of yesterday. I must admit, it is difficult, but I will make the choice to do so. I must also admit, it is difficult to pray for this president...but I have, and I will continue to do so, and I do it because that is what is required of a person who wears the title, Christian, and sooner or later (hopefully sooner), I will sink into the peace that the Lord has waiting for me. You see, I am a very stubborn human...like a dog with a bone...hard to let go of things, sometimes. Amazing how much power we allow our flesh to have, even when we don't want it to! Paul said it perfectly in Romans 7:15-24 Romans 7:15-24 (AMP)

15 For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns].
16 Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.
17 However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.]
19 For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [fixed and operating in my soul].
21 So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.
22 For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature].
23 But I discern in my bodily members [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].
24 O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?

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