BIBLE PASSAGE:
On reaching the place, he said to them,
“Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”
(Luke 22:40)
MEDITATION:
Do you ever feel that there is some sin that you just cannot overcome
and shed? At times you feel like Paul who just couldn’t understand
his own actions.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do
I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Romans 7:15)
His failures were causing him to struggle
with forgiving himself for his sins against God.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me
from this body that is subject to death? (Romans 7:24)
When we look at Paul’s struggle,
we see a man with a heart (“desire”) to please God.
For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is,
in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is
good, but I cannot carry it out. (Romans 7:18)
However, sin was a constant threat to Paul’s hope of avoiding the
things which caused him to feel worthless and despicable for being
disobedient. Paul realized the power and attraction of sin. He didn’t
try to justify his actions, but admitted that sin was still living in him
and ready to seize control whenever he let down his guard.
For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not
want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not
want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in
me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want
to do good, evil is right there with me. (Romans 7:19-21)
It sounds like Paul is in a hopeless situation doesn’t it? It appears
he is destined to continue displeasing the Lord and living out his
life on earth as a person of sinful disobedience.
But, the good news is,
Paul knew how to be rescued from his struggles.
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ
our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s
law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
(Romans 7:25)
The Psalmist knew it too.
My shield is God Most High,
who saves the upright in heart. (Psalm 7:10)
Paul knew that his only source of escape from the bondage of sin
was to talk to the Lord. It is the same for us – we must go to the
Lord in prayer if we want to rise above the things that try to keep
us in bondage and discourage us. How do we know we need to
pray? Because Jesus Himself told His disciples (and us) to pray:
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)
From a ‘heart’ that loved the Lord and wanted to please Him, Paul
knew that when the Lord was in control, he would be successful with
obedience, but when he allowed his sinful nature to overpower him,
disobedience was inevitable. He also knew that disobedience created
his feelings of worthlessness and low self-esteem, which caused him
to have a genuine struggle with forgiving himself for his own failures.
ACTION:
Paul gives us a living example of the struggles Christians can have
with sin’s attempts to control their lives. For every Christian, it is
a mind battle that is real. Whenever we are in a battle, we have
three options:
we can keep on fighting,
we can seek reinforcements (through prayer),
or, we can surrender to our foe.
Some give up the fight and say, “This is just who I am”. That
is a lie from hell itself! As a result of what happened in the
Garden of Eden, we have a ‘sin nature’, but our Creator
instills in us a desire to please Him, in spite of the obstacles
that try to discourage us.
Our first line of defense is to determine our heart’s desires.
It is up to us to decide which direction our heart will take.
Either we will continue to nourish our desire to please the
Lord, or we will suppress that desire and surrender to the
power of sin.
Read again how Paul fought the same fights we are having and
how he sought the power of the Lord to come to his rescue. And
never forget that our greatest weapon against the evil one is,
“Prayer!” If we fail to pray, then we are on our own against the
most powerful foe we could ever face.
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, too often I can relate to the struggles Paul
experienced with his desire to please You, and the battle he had
with the things that tempted him to acts of disobedience. When
I read about Paul, I can sense his heart to obey You and I believe
I have that same desire. At the same time, I see how he struggled
with his temptations to be disobedient and how he had trouble
forgiving himself whenever he yielded to his sinful nature. Lord
that describes me too, so I plead with You to rescue me as You
did Paul, so that instead of feeling worthless and discouraged,
I too can become a useful servant of Yours.”
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