Thursday, April 15, 2010

THE SLAVE TO LOVE: Force We Will Experience

The Christian life isn’t just difficult—it’s impossible! We cannot live it on our own, but thankfully, we don’t have to. When we submit to God, there is a force we can experience that can only be described as the supernatural power of the Almighty unleashed in and through human instrumentality.

Paul gives us the key to a life that is naturally supernatural and supernaturally natural when he says,

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey
it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of
unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall
not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

(Rom.6:12-14)

The connecting point where the power of this truth is released is found in the word“present.”

REFUSE TO OFFER YOUR BODY TO SENSUAL DESIRES. Fleshly impulses need no longer drive your life. You have the authority as a child of God to say, “No!” to the world, the flesh and the devil. Because you have offered your thoughts to evil, your heart to carnal desire, and your will to sin’s dominion in the past, you find it easy to slip into these old patterns and yield your body to do wrong. That has been the natural response, yet you now have a new nature and are in union with Christ. Still, it isn’t enough at that point to just try not to do wrong, but we must do the right thing.

RESPOND IN OFFERING YOUR BODY TO SPIRITUAL DIRECTION. Our minds can be renewed by the Word of God. Our hearts can be redirected by the Spirit of God. Our will can be realigned to the will of God and then we yield our body to do the right thing. In a sense, we get reprogrammed. Hellish habits are replaced by holy habits. Faith taps into the grace of God and breaks the chains of sin.

Will you now present yourself to God? Present yourself as one who has been set free from sin and given new life in Christ.

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