Bible reading: Romans 9:14-25
19 “I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.”
In my journey as a Christian, I have often found myself relating to the challenges described in this passage.
First, we see Paul’s admittance of his struggle with sin expressed in utter frustration that I can personally relate to, but we also see him separating his sinful nature from his mind which ultimately wills him to do the right thing. I like to compare this situation to the cartoon where you see a devil and an angel on each side of the shoulder of a person guiding them in different directions. The only problem is, in this scenario, although he/she recognises that the advice of the angel is the ideal path to take, somehow the devil’s wins keep racking up against the angel.
Paul then acknowledges that without Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross, we are pretty much doomed to follow the path of sin (which ultimately condemns us to death) no matter how hard we try. However, what we need to remember is that as Christians we are no longer bound by our sinful nature instead, through the power of Jesus, we can live our lives according to the spirit of God. But this is by no means an easy ride and would still require an active effort on our part. This involves training ourselves daily to fix our minds on the things of the spirit rather than sinful things as God so kindly reminds us that what we think in our minds dictates our actions (Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he….”).
We need to remember that the Christian life is not a passive lifestyle but an active one requiring us to discipline our flesh daily (Like the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27 “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified”). But the silver lining is that we no longer have to rely on our strength. Instead, we can draw from the grace and power of our Lord and as we do so we can boldly exalt Him and humble ourselves ( 2 Corinthians 12:9 ” And He said to me, ‘ My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness’….”).
So I encourage you to join me on this journey of walking with God and disciplining ourselves each day to live according to the spirit so that we might not be disqualified from the race.
