I don’t really know what I’m going to write about today, but I know that I’ve got to.
A lot is going on in my heart and mind these days, and I don’t want to leave it there. I want to see it in print. Plus I’m afraid it may give me a headache or even worse, depending on where stored up thoughts choose to attack my body.
Sin has me once again in a quandary asking God what he’s doing in my life. I think God has me in a better place, a place of confident repentance and assurance of my right standing before him in Christ, I think…
I’ve been learning that I’ve got no power over sin. In the Lord’s Prayer, I ask that God “keep me from temptation” because I’m beginning to realize that temptation is deadly. Temptation, for me, almost always leads to sin.
I’ve believed that if I just simply harness the power of God and ask for his help, he would “help” me to resist temptation.
No. I’ve got no power to resist sin. All the power comes from him. All the obedience is from him.
True surrender is a novel concept in my thinking. I’ve always thought of it as an act that we perform. But in actuality, I believe it’s something that God enables as he allows sin in our lives to take us to a place of desperate hope for a savior.
We all need a savior every day.
I’ve always asked if I’m surrendering my life enough, or if I’m clinging to God enough and on and on. But God’s slowly showing me that it’s not about my strength that carries me. Life and righteousness are God's, his alone. He gives it where he pleases and he is generous.
He’s even generous enough to let me try combating my sin “with his help” and failing over and over and over. Why do I say that he’s generous in this way? Because the sooner he defeats the damnable idea that I’ve got my life and sin under control the better.
In the Psalm 71 the psalmist cries out “O Lord, in your righteousness deliver me, rescue me and save me! Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may continually come.”
As much as I will probably focus on my own “self-salvation project” today, I’m grateful that God gave me the time and space to simply reflect on the truth that he alone is the savior. Perhaps while he’s going about saving me, he’ll also keep me from headaches and what's happening to that poor kid in the picture above.
A lot is going on in my heart and mind these days, and I don’t want to leave it there. I want to see it in print. Plus I’m afraid it may give me a headache or even worse, depending on where stored up thoughts choose to attack my body.
Sin has me once again in a quandary asking God what he’s doing in my life. I think God has me in a better place, a place of confident repentance and assurance of my right standing before him in Christ, I think…
I’ve been learning that I’ve got no power over sin. In the Lord’s Prayer, I ask that God “keep me from temptation” because I’m beginning to realize that temptation is deadly. Temptation, for me, almost always leads to sin.
I’ve believed that if I just simply harness the power of God and ask for his help, he would “help” me to resist temptation.
No. I’ve got no power to resist sin. All the power comes from him. All the obedience is from him.
True surrender is a novel concept in my thinking. I’ve always thought of it as an act that we perform. But in actuality, I believe it’s something that God enables as he allows sin in our lives to take us to a place of desperate hope for a savior.
We all need a savior every day.
I’ve always asked if I’m surrendering my life enough, or if I’m clinging to God enough and on and on. But God’s slowly showing me that it’s not about my strength that carries me. Life and righteousness are God's, his alone. He gives it where he pleases and he is generous.
He’s even generous enough to let me try combating my sin “with his help” and failing over and over and over. Why do I say that he’s generous in this way? Because the sooner he defeats the damnable idea that I’ve got my life and sin under control the better.
In the Psalm 71 the psalmist cries out “O Lord, in your righteousness deliver me, rescue me and save me! Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may continually come.”
As much as I will probably focus on my own “self-salvation project” today, I’m grateful that God gave me the time and space to simply reflect on the truth that he alone is the savior. Perhaps while he’s going about saving me, he’ll also keep me from headaches and what's happening to that poor kid in the picture above.
3 comments:
Read it twice, thanks brother.
Check out this prayer from The Valley of Vision - it is really relevant to your blog:
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou has brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley.
AMEN!
Flip,
How about coffee (or my version of it) at Starbuck's sometime soon?
Scott
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