I Sure Wish I Could Do That!

Have you ever uttered that phrase?  I know I have...many times.  I've eaten many a delicious meal that I could only dream about being able to cook.  The microwave is my best friend.  I can make tea and every once in a while a good cup of coffee.  I'm still working on that one.

In high school sports, I was just a couple of steps beyond the "mascot."  But I did enjoy being in the band as a trumpet player.  Practice made the difference, but I had little "natural talent."  I worked hard at it, and the practice paid off.  That I know of, I have no "natural talent."  Everything has come with difficulty and practice.  The only thing that seems to come naturally, is doing the wrong thing.  My flesh is truly weak.

The Apostle Paul struggled with the sinful flesh as much as anyone, if not more.  If you have been given breath, you have a sinful nature that fights daily against doing what is right before God.  Romans 7:15  For I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.The law of God is a spiritual law and is in constant warefare against the sinful nature that indwells us. 

When one accepts Jesus Christ as Savior, His Spirit comes to indwell us and immediately seeks to gain the ground which Satan has claimed for so many years.  Rom 7:20  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  We are not free when we are controlled by the old sinful nature.

Satan's goal is to enslave us through behavior that is not in keeping with God's will for our lives.  Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
　
However, Jesus paid the price!  1 Corinthians 6:20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.  Jesus "purchased" us from the slave market of sin with His blood when He died on the cross.  Our job is to glorify God in our body.

When we accept Christ, He gives us the Holy Spirit through whose power we are able to overcome the sinful flesh.  What we could not do naturally, we are now able to do "supernaturally."
Act 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Act 2:33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

Romans 7:22-25  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.Jesus is your "Deliverer."  Pray and ask God to give you the strength and power through Christ to deliver you from the besetting sins in your life.

You Can Do That!

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13