Is it because I will not submit fully to the will of God, because I will not relinquish my complete will to His? Is it because of sin, if even for the shortest amount of time, modifying them, altering them to satisfy the law of sin within me, yet casting them aside when the Holy Spirit says, “Enough of that.”
“I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3)
Once, at His cross, acknowledging who He says He is and calling Him Lord, or continuously throughout our lifetime, repenting without ceasing, for new sins against Him that never seem to fully abate?
I have lived long enough to know that the call of the world never ceases, never relents, and I have been saved and am being sanctified by His grace and mercy long enough to know that I can do nothing without Him.
Which is worse, the thought of sin or the action of sin?
If we have truly repented of something, why do those thoughts reoccur, why do they return to plague us?
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2nd Cor. 10:5)
The man that was used by the Holy Spirit to write those words asked these same questions, how is it possible to fully and without reservations submit our will, even our thoughts, to the will of the Most High when our thoughts, the imaginations of our mind cannot, and will not in this lifetime, be placed fully under His authority?
“I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7:25)
There are three forces within us, our mind that has no other desire than to serve the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God, our flesh, also a section, a part of our thought processes that must adhere to the law of sin, and the Holy Spirit, who encourages and enables us to recognize and stand against that part of us that we desire and detest at the same time.
Very rarely do those who have been born-again follow the prompting of that law of sin within us, in fact, we pray fervently that those imaginations, those temptations would never be realized in what we call reality, in the physical world. Yet those thoughts, those imaginations of the mind return, are altered, are modified, and we follow them.
No one can completely and fully control their mind, and the Holy Spirit is not going to take full control of you or all of your thoughts. We are not reprobates, we have the assurance of our salvation, but we view ourselves as one occasionally.
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24)
If you know this battle, then you understand this letter, and if you are not seeing much fruit in your labors, then you have asked yourself that question a thousand times, is it because I will not fully submit to His will, is it because I have not died completely to self. Is it because I cannot control my thoughts?
I am war torn in this area my friends, and I have been for many years. The unrelenting law of sin that I cannot blame our adversary for, that I will be held accountable for.
To repent means, in part, to turn away from, but many times when we turn around, another temptation awaits us, another imagination is staring at us right in the face.
There will be no release until we are glorified, but there is relief waiting every time we turn around.
