“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1st John 2:16)
Everything that was normal to us, in our nature, many, if not most of them accepted by much of society as natural inclinations, even praiseworthy in the eyes of many, we are now to deny ourselves. In fact, we are not only to deny ourselves these pleasures, for that truly is what they are, but we are to flee from them, to detest them, to view them as sin.
We are expected, commanded to turn away when they are offered to us, to no longer seek after them, but to call them temptations from Satan himself, the product, for some of us, of years, even decades of a life that we thoroughly enjoyed.
And there is no way whatsoever that we can accomplish this task.
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Phil. 4:13)
What would you prefer more, the ability to cast mountains into the sea, or to never have one more thought pass through your mind of unscriptural sexual desires? Would you praise the name of the Living God with greater fervency if He healed you of that long lasting illness, or if you could look upon an item of this world without ever lusting after it? Not one hint of pride in your life ever again, or the ability to heal others, to walk on water?
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal. 5:17)
We serve the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God by going completely against our nature, realizing that we will never fully be able to perform that duty in this life by our own volition, by our own personal efforts, praying for the strength to die to self, and remaining in this battle until our dying breath.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, “I tried” is the best we have to offer the Lord.
I tried for your glory to deny myself, to stand when I could stand, and to flee when I could not, to run and hide under the shelter of your wings, to the High Tower that is our Redeemer. And we realize this truth about ourselves, we fail miserably at times.
“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” (Prov. 24:16)
“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15)
We cannot be as our Savior was in the flesh, we will fall, in fact, run headfirst into temptations at times. We cannot be holy, we cannot, will not, deny our old nature every single time. But we try to.
We are in a battle that the unregenerated can never comprehend, it is continuous, it is draining, it is wearisome, and it is not going to end until we die. By the grace and mercy of the Most High we gain ground, as we grow in His grace and knowledge, some of those sins are finally cast away, the actions of them cease, but our thoughts, the imaginations of our heart in full are never completely crucified.
Our adversary shifts his focus upon us, but never relents, our old nature finds new sins to contemplate, new ways to attempt to continue to hold some type of grip upon us.
And we cry, “Abba, Father.”
We are crucified with Christ, but we still carry our cross. We do not fight this battle solely for the rewards waiting for us, we do not persevere only so that we can hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” We do so because of Him who first loved us, who gave Himself for us.
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
In our flesh is no good thing, and we will remain in this flesh until we are taken home. Bloody, bruised, torn, armor dented and barely hanging on.
Give God the glory, for without Him, you would lose this battle.
