Freedom That Surpasses All Understanding
Do you ever have those “duh” moments with God? The moments when he takes you back to the basics to show you were you went wrong and all you can do is put your hand to your forehead and say; “DUH!!” I get those a lot, which is humbling to admit but is extremely true. Thankfully God never gets frustrated or angry with us and helps us back through the A,B,C’s of Christianity. What God showed me a few weeks ago is so basic and beautiful that I wanted to share it with you too.Before I had my most recent “duh” moment with God, I felt like I was in a proverbial faith slump. I couldn’t hit a curveball, changeup, slider or even a fastball. It seemed like I was striking out left and right and the whole stadium was boo’ing me. Nothing I did or said was right and waking up in the morning was dreadful. Dreadful because all I could do was wonder what I was going to do to screw up today. But God showed me the following passage;Romans 7:15-20 - 15 I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. 16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things. 18 I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't. 19 When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. 20 But if I am doing what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it. (NLT) This is outstanding news!!!!!! What the Apostle Paul tells us in this chapter is simply astounding. How many times have you beat yourself up over mistakes you have made? How many times have you wanted to do good but always fell short even though you had every good intention? Guess what, it’s not you that is doing it, it’s sin!Let’s jump over to Romans 8 and see what else Paul has to say about this;Romans 8:9-11 - 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (NIV)I lose sight of this a lot, but we truly do live in two separate worlds. I know that may seem really strange to think about but it is true. We live in an earthy world with what John Eldredge calls an unholy trinity (The world, the flesh, and the enemy) and a spiritual world with a holy trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). These two worlds collide and do battle every single second of every single day. And we are caught in the middle of it all. Literally, at this very moment, there is a fight for your soul. So when you are manipulated by the unholy trinity to do evil, do not let this become your identity. In other words do not attach your sin to who you are. That part of you (The world and flesh) will die off eventually and is not the real you. Your soul is who you will be forever and ever. As long as you hand that over to Christ you can know who the real you is. Once we get a handle on that we can experience and live in a freedom that the secular world can never understand.