no hope for the flesh

When we try to fight battles of the flesh on our own, we occasionally win, but most of the time we lose. Why do we continue to blame God for this? If only we would call on Him and put our hope and trust in Him, we could win all of those battles. That's not to say we lay down and stop fighting. No, we still have to do the fighting, but our trust is in Him alone while we fight.

For example, let's say you have an anger problem. You try and try to not be angry, but it just overtakes you and you feel so guilty after your explosion. You are fighting those battles without the help of the Almighty. Christians have this problem as much as anyone else, because even Christians do not depend on God. More than any other excuse, i have heard, "Why doesn't God help me? I try and try, i pray and pray, but i never change. He doesn't change me." You see, they are blaming God for their anger problem. Rather than taking responsibility for it themselves, they would choose to blame their Maker! "After all, He made me this way." Ha! That is so wrong, so wrong.

Then what is the right attitude of heart when thinking of your sin? You guessed it: take responsibility for your own actions. Confess your sin with tears, begging God to forgive you, pouring out your soul and crying out for Him to help you. Only with a humble attitude will He reach down and lift you up. He judges based on your heart. He knows how you feel toward Him, no matter what your lips might say. You must see yourself as fully guilty of whatever sin you have in your life. You must confess it with passion, really seeking out His help. He doesn't want what we call "lip service." Remember the two men who were praying to God? One was what we would call a "godly man" while the other was a "sinner." The sinner beat his breast and couldn't even look up because he was overwhelmed at his unworthiness to even speak to God, while the "good" man in his heart was proud. Can the eyes of our hearts see how God is teaching us through this story? He wants extreme humility, deep within. You must begin there, and only there.

Now i don't care if that sin continues to plague you for another year. You don't give up hope that God will change the situation. You keep coming to Him, humbly, persist in your prayer life, know that a change IS coming. The battle might last through the night, but joy comes in the morning. So many of you Christians really have given up on God. He is still there waiting to hear from you, but you refuse to go to Him. As long as you have breath in your lungs, it is not too late. Go to Him and be healed!

I had a certain sin in my life that plagued me even before i called on God as my Lord. I felt guilty about it before i ever knew Him. Then after i knew Him, it plagued me still, but i hated it all the more. My hatred for the sin grew until i thought i couldn't take it anymore. But i did what i've described above. I took responsibility, crying out passionately for help time and again, never giving up hope that He would help me, never saying that He had forsaken me. And you know what? Three years later, after a lot of pain spiritually, i was totally healed. It was a LONG battle, but i fought it with His help and was rewarded greatly. This is how i look at life with the Lord, though some i know disagree. Some think that if it doesn't happen in a year, two years, ten years, then it will never happen.

What encourages me most is to look at the lives of those in the Bible. The heros of the stories are always nothing more than flesh. They are weak men, just like me and you. But God remains faithful to us. His mercy triumphs over judgment! So don't use that as an excuse to keep sinning, or you will be judged more severely. But do realize that the problem is not with your Maker; the problem lies within you. Go to Him, i say again, and trust in His power to heal you. Hate your sin passionately, cry with tears. Get by yourself and really loudly cry out to Him. When you can't be alone, let the cries be silent but still there. Persist day after day, year after year.

"I need Thee, O i need Thee, every hour i need Thee...i come to Thee."

Bible Words

Somanytimes, i just need a good dose of TRUTH! This is from 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2:

"Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence. God has done all this. He has restored our relationship with Him through Christ, and has given us a this ministry of restoring relationships. In other words, God was using Christ to restore His relationship with humanity. He didn't hold people's sins against them, and He has given us this message of restored relationships to tell others. Therefore, we are Christ's representatives, and through us God is calling you. We beg you on behalf of Christ to become reunited with God. God had Christ, who was sinless, take our sin so that we might receive God's approval through Him...we urge you not to let God's kindness be wasted on you...Now is God's acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!"

I like this child's version:)