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?

PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU

Excerpt from Jesus Calling devotional ~ When you trust Me in a given area, you release that problem or that person into My care.


One of the scriptures from that devotional is from John 14:27 (amp) ~ Jesus is speaking to His disciples, "Peace I leave with you; My own peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled."


This spoke to me perfectly this morning.  I've been struggling for a while with a particular relationship, and that has had an effect on others.  I've also had much anxiety and stress related to my 24 year old son moving back home (which is an answered prayer, and another story), spiritual warfare in my own home, and to top it all off, there's the stress of dealing with the "c" word (I won't say the word. I won't give it legs to stand on) that has effected my mom, my sister-in-law, and numerous friends and acquaintances.


It is a daily struggle to release all of this to Jesus.  I love the amplified's version, "Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed..."  That is exactly how I've felt; agitated and disturbed.  VERY disturbed!


Abba Father, I release all of my worries, my cares, my anxieties, my troubles, and my fears to you, right now!  I release this person to You, Father.  I release my mom, my sister-in-law, and each of my precious friends to You!  I place each of them into Your perfect care!  In Jesus precious name, it is done!