Sometimes I forget how powerful and remarkable the word of God is. Silly me. Why is it that when I feel tired, stressed, lonely, unhappy, anything remotely negative I retreat, feel sorry for myself and let Satan attack me. NOT ANY MORE! I need to run to scripture, I need to run to HIM, jump in His arms and be His attentive child willing to be loved, taught and sought after. I need to be jealous for Him, like He is jealous for me.
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; stuck down, but not destroyed." - 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything... Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him." - James 1: 2-4, 12
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God..." - Isaiah 43:2
"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." - Isaiah 40:29-31
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:1-8
Thank You Lord for redirecting me back to Your word. My prayer is Lord James 1:22, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says!" I don't want to be deceiving myself anymore, I want to be glorifying You with my everything.
14-16 I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.
ReplyDelete17-20 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
21-23 It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
24 I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
Romans 7:14-25 (The Message version)
At woman's bible study we were talking about our struggle with sin (like you were saying, secluding yourself and not seeking God when we know we should)and this passage really encouraged me because it reminds me that we cannot seek God the way we want on our own. We need the Holy Spirit, our helper. We have to rely on God's strength and sometimes I forget that and try and "will" myself there. Also, when we were discussing how to deal with our struggle with sin (the fact that even though we are freed from sin through Christ's death, we still struggle) and basically we realized that we are no longer slaves to sin, but we still struggle with the presence of sin in this broken world.
I love that you are seeking God through His Word when you struggle with the temptation to isolate yourself. I totally relate, I do the SAME thing. But as the Lord draws us near and teaches us, hopefully those times of temptation become more and more spread apart :)
Miss you.