As I prepared my heart for a new day this morning, these were my thoughts as I searched my soul for any folly that would withhold from me God’s sweet presence in my life.
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Do you hear the frustration, the utter annoyance with self? Do you feel the battle as it rages within the soul? Does it rage in your soul? It is not a pleasant sensation. Perhaps we think that because we are experiencing spiritual discomfort that it is not of God. No indeed, do not think so, for it is far worse if we do not feel the inner struggle of the Spirit warring against the flesh. This would indicate that we have yielded to the flesh and it has numbed us to the prodding, the convicting questioning, of the Holy Ghost of God. Do not fight against conscience. Woe be to him who strives with his Maker!
How often we become caught up in our own righteousness! We look around us and compare our deeds with those of others. In so doing, we will always find that we are more righteous than they, for our wicked hearts declare only their own goodness. We can easily justify ourselves when in comparison with others, for they, too, are mere flesh and blood. How easily we are all prone to wander! No, it is not human with human that we should judge our own goodness, but human with God. When comparing ourselves with His righteousness, we will always be found wanting. When laying our garments beside His, we will find that His are the purest white and ours at their very best state are altogether filthy in comparison. It is then that we realize how truly wretched we are. Lord, let me see myself through Your eyes!
In Romans 7, Paul wrote of the war that raged within his soul. The good that he willed to do he did not, and the wrong that he would refuse to do he did regardless. How well I know this struggle, for I oft feel it raging within my own soul. It seems that just when I have gotten the victory over one sin in my life, another soon rears its ugly head, and I find that I have once again failed. It is then that I cry, “O, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Every day my prayer must be, “Dear God, crush everything in me that is against You. All that is proud, self-righteous, ungrateful, murmuring, uncaring, unlovely, hateful, bitter, selfish, every mean word spoken and thought of wickedness, rebellion, worry, the ungraciousness spirit…forgive and cleanse me from all of these. Purge my heart. I empty my vessel that You might fill it with Yourself. Lord, take this broken clay; make it soft and formable in Your hands. Place me on Your potter’s wheel; shape me and mold me into the person You wish me to be.”
Ah, what peace comes from full surrender! O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The answer: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is He who will deliver! Oh, that I might trod this day in the steps of Jesus Christ, for He has left me an example, that I should walk in them.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-25
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
No comments:
Post a Comment