The Word of God for wisdom:
Proverbs 19:26 (NLT)
26 Children who mistreat their father or chase away their mother are an embarrassment and a public disgrace.
The Word of God for inspiration:
Psalm 18:36 (NLT)
36 You have made a wide path for my feet to keep them from slipping.
The Word of God for encouragement:
Romans 7:18 (HCSB)
18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.
Romans 7:21-24 (HCSB)
21 So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me.
22 For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God's law.
23 But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body?
My observation:
The sooner the believer discovers what Paul discovered and wrote about in Romans 7, the sooner we will have victory in our daily Christian walk with Jesus. We are people with two natures; the old nature and the new nature.
In chapter seven Paul shows us how we can break the power that the old nature has over us. It is not by trying to reform it; rather, it is by starving it. Here is the problem with the old nature.
Romans 8:7 (HCSB)
7 For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God's law, for it is unable to do so.
Here is the answer to dealing with the old nature. We need to embrace what John and Paul says to us here. It is our only hope for living the victorious Christian life.
John 6:63 (HCSB)
63 The Spirit is the One who gives life. The flesh doesn't help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
Romans 7:25 (HCSB)
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin.
My prayer:
Father God, my dear Father, I praise you and I thank you that Jesus has fought and won the battle with sin, death, and the devil.
Father God, I thank you that my hope to be holy and blameless in your eyes is in Jesus. Father, I thank you that only the power of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit of God can rescue me from the power of sin.
Father God, help me to remember to cash the check of this wonderful promise.
Romans 6:11 (HCSB)
11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Father, help me to remember to starve the old nature, and to feed the new nature the words of life from the word of God. Amen.
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Psalm 130:3-4 (HCSB)
3 Yahweh, if You considered sins, Lord, who could stand?
4 But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be revered.
Psalm 18:6 (HCSB)
6 I called to the LORD in my distress, and I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry to Him reached His ears.
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