Oh how He reproves, with love and mercy and with justice, the impure and dishonorable mind. I believe we all struggle in this arena, one way or the other.
Maybe we are short tempered, unmerciful and unrepentant, or haughty. Maybe we are just indifferent, or how about insecure? The list goes on...people pleasing, crabby (even after coffee, lol), prideful, greedy, selfish, overly anxious, lazy or the opposite driven with ambition to the point of relentless fatigue. Maybe sexual thoughts are allowed to run freely. Maybe we are way too comfy finding fault in others... maybe just ungrateful and negative… maybe perfectionism has us at its mercy, or maybe balance never seems to surface, sometimes it is in the simple things, like we need to be more serious, and other times, we need to just lighten up...on and on.
We all need Jesus... Praise His Holy Name, Yeshua!!!!.
As I ponder where I need to improve (the list goes on, lol), I laugh because that is part of just one of my problems. Too much introspection and eagerness to grow, can nurture the tendency to bring the thoughts back to little ol me.
Ugh…🤔
So... what do we do? Do we throw our hands in the air, giving up on transformation? Do we weigh ourselves down in guilt and shame? We see Paul also examined such things…
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:15-18, 20 ESV
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Romans 7:21, 23-25 ESV
Look though, those confessions show that He was as human as the rest. He then went on to point to our hope.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 8:5-6 ESV
Peace, what a bountiful and profitable blessing He brings.
So…
We absolutely don't give up on change, we give up on our own ability to find altering shifts.The transformative power, like every other good thing, belongs to Him. His mercy reigns in our weaknesses.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV
May we all renew our minds to the point of change as we incline ourselves to Him.
Maybe we are short tempered, unmerciful and unrepentant, or haughty. Maybe we are just indifferent, or how about insecure? The list goes on...people pleasing, crabby (even after coffee, lol), prideful, greedy, selfish, overly anxious, lazy or the opposite driven with ambition to the point of relentless fatigue. Maybe sexual thoughts are allowed to run freely. Maybe we are way too comfy finding fault in others... maybe just ungrateful and negative… maybe perfectionism has us at its mercy, or maybe balance never seems to surface, sometimes it is in the simple things, like we need to be more serious, and other times, we need to just lighten up...on and on.
We all need Jesus... Praise His Holy Name, Yeshua!!!!.
As I ponder where I need to improve (the list goes on, lol), I laugh because that is part of just one of my problems. Too much introspection and eagerness to grow, can nurture the tendency to bring the thoughts back to little ol me.
Ugh…🤔
So... what do we do? Do we throw our hands in the air, giving up on transformation? Do we weigh ourselves down in guilt and shame? We see Paul also examined such things…
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:15-18, 20 ESV
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Romans 7:21, 23-25 ESV
Look though, those confessions show that He was as human as the rest. He then went on to point to our hope.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 8:5-6 ESV
Peace, what a bountiful and profitable blessing He brings.
So…
We absolutely don't give up on change, we give up on our own ability to find altering shifts.The transformative power, like every other good thing, belongs to Him. His mercy reigns in our weaknesses.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV
May we all renew our minds to the point of change as we incline ourselves to Him.
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