HOW DO YOU FEEL? (part-18)

DO YOU EVER FEEL YOU ARE IN FRUSTRATING CYCLE?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will
not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
(Galatians 5:16)

MEDITATION:
Do you have a struggle with some sins that had a grip on you before
you received salvation from the Lord? Are there times when you
feel like you have distanced yourself from those sins when suddenly,
often without warning, the attraction to them has returned. Are you
disappointed in yourself because you feel a strong attraction to them
once again?

It can be very discouraging, can’t it? You ‘bow our neck’ and ‘set
your jaw’ with a determined attitude that those sins will never be a
part of your life again. But, before you know it, you are blindsided,
and once again you yield to the temptation. Even though you know
what happens each time you give in (because it has happened to you
way too often), you can’t seem to break this cycle of temptation and
sin.

It creates in you an uneasy feeling to come before the Lord in prayer,
because you know you have disappointed Him (again). The fellowship
you had with the Lord prior to your failure, is not as close now. The
guilt you feel is overwhelming once again, and you may find yourself
feeling uncomfortable with anything related to the Lord, or church.
Even while sitting in church, your joy is not what it was in the past.

You sing songs and listen to sermons, but you feel something is
missing. There are times when you can almost feel as if you are
in the wrong place, and would have been better off if you had
stayed home instead of going to church. Your enthusiasm and
zest for serving and being close to the Lord has diminished.

We might look at our lives and think,
    “How could God accept me when He has
      seen the magnitude and frequency of my sins?”

Even though we are embarrassed (and ashamed) of how filthy we have
appeared in the eyes of God when He witnessed the sins we have been
committing, we should ask ourselves this glaring question:
    Has my sinful past included the persecution of Christians?
Why? Because we will look at someone who was persecuting believers
until God changed him.

Also, ask yourself this question:
    Have others who belong to the Lord ever experienced
    these same types of struggles and feelings that I am having?

Now, to answer these questions, let’s look at a sinner who the Lord
changed into an active and committed disciple who was now driven
with a passion to point others to the same Lord who changed him.

Saul was a ‘religious’ man who was diligent in his efforts to
persecute, punish, imprison and even approve the murder
of those who had become followers of Jesus.
    On that day a great persecution broke out against the
    church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were
    scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men
    buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul
    began to destroy the church. Going from house to house,
    he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
    (Acts 8:1-2)

In the scripture just listed, when it says ‘on that day’, it is referring
to when one of God’s saints (Stephen) had just been stoned to death
due to His faith in Jesus. And where was Saul when this happened?
He was watching (approving) the murder of someone dedicated to
serving the Lord.
    At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their
    voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and
    began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats
    at the feet of a young man named Saul.
    (Acts 7:57-58)

We need to remember that God considers all forms of sin the same.
However, from a human standpoint, we often categorize some sins
as ‘minor’, and others as ‘major’. As a result of our perceptions of
sin, we might shudder at just the thought of murdering those who
are serving the Lord, but that’s what Saul was involved with.

How could God forgive sins of this magnitude, but He did! How could
God use someone who persecuted His people, but He did! Why would
God even consider forgiving a sinner of this type? He did it because
He loved Saul (whom He created), and He saw something in Saul that
people could not see. God knew He could use Saul to point others to
His Son, Jesus Christ.

Aren’t you glad that God loves us more than we could ever imagine?
Aren’t you glad that God will forgive us of our sins, even if we have
a struggle forgiving ourselves? Aren’t you glad that God sees our
potential and capability for serving Him? Aren’t you glad that God
can transform us from being a sinful person, to becoming one of His
servants?

That’s what He did with Saul, and He changed him so dramatically that
his name was changed from ‘Saul’ to ‘Paul’, which emphasizes that he
had become a new person. Since God does not show favoritism, if He can
have this kind of impact on a sinner like Saul, then He can transform you
and me as well.

We may not have our name changed, but we can have our lives changed
when God ‘calls’ us to a ‘new life’. The scriptures tell us about how God
begins a ‘sanctification’ process of those whom He has forgiven and saved.
This is a time when He purges us of our unrighteousness and fills the void
with righteousness. Why? So that we will become more like the One we are
following, Jesus Christ. It is not something we are capable of achieving in
our own strength, so God ‘steps in’ to help us.

Pause for a moment and visualize who Saul was before God transformed
him, and who he became (Paul) because God transformed him. Instead of
persecuting God’s people, he was now dedicated to telling other about His
Son, Jesus. With this kind of dramatic change in his life, wouldn’t you just
assume that Paul was so close to the Lord, that he would no longer have any
problems with unrighteousness?

We need to know and realize that even though we have been forgiven
and ‘saved’ by God, sin will always be nearby and striving to cause us
to fail. We can see how quickly Jesus was tempted (immediately after
being baptized).
    Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw
    heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on
    Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You
    are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
    At once the Spirit sent Him out into the wilderness, and
    He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by
    Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended Him.
    (Mark 1:10-13)

Even after ‘the Spirit descended on Jesus’, Satan was busy trying to tempt
Him. Jesus resisted those temptations by quoting scriptures which caused
Satan to give up his efforts to tempt Him….but only for the moment. We
can see that he planned to return and tempt him again at “an opportune time”.
    Jesus answered, “It is said: Do not put the Lord your
    God to the test.” When the devil had finished all this
    tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
    (Luke 4:12-13)
Note:
    Read Luke 4:1-13 and see how Jesus was being tempted,
    by Satan, and the way He responded to each temptation.

Now, back to the ‘new Saul’ (now called Paul). When God has forgiven
us, saved us, and transformed us, we will still have some times when we
struggle with sins of our past, and especially the ones that we are weak
in resisting.

When we encounter these temptations and fail to walk away from them,
we have a choice to make, don’t we? We can give in to them and return
to our previous sinful actions, we can be overwhelmed with guilt and lose
our feeling of being close to the Lord, or we can admit our sins to God,
ask Him to forgive us, and trust that He will help us walk away from them.

When we make the last choice, we can be confident that God will strengthen
our resolve to obey Him, that He will protect us, that He will forgive us, that
He can suppress the growing feelings guilt and separation from Him that we
are feeling, and that He will continue to conform us from ‘who we are’ to
‘who He wants us to be’.

When we are disappointed in our failures, we have a greater understanding
of the challenges Paul had with sin and his weaknesses, even after he had
been transformed by God. When we fail, if we don’t have feelings similar
to those of Paul, then we should be concerned that Satan is controlling our
mind.
    When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.”
    For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;
    but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their
    own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it
    gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
    (James 1:13-15)

    Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on
    what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with
    the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The
    mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed
    by the Spirit is life and peace.
    (Romans 8:5-6)

Our failures can give us a greater
understanding of how Paul struggled with his 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)

We can also relate to Paul’s personal frustration with himself.
    As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is
    sin living in me. 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. 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.
    (Romans 7:17-20)

Paul knew that the source of his failures was the sin within himself.
He continues to express his frustration with his inner spiritual warfare.
    So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good,
    evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight
    in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging
    war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner
    of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man
    I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to
    death?
    (Romans 7:21-24)

You can sense the desperation of Paul in his words, can’t you?
He realized that He did not have the capacity to stop the cycle
of failures in his life, so he struggled with viewing himself as a
servant of God. Although he truly was a servant, his regret had
caused him to view himself as, a “wretched man”. We should ask
if we consider ourselves as a servant/disciple of the Lord.

We don’t know what struggles Paul had with sin, but we know
that his struggles were real to him. It’s the same with us, isn’t
it? Others may not be aware of the sin struggles we have, but
we know they are real, and it is a continuing battle for us.

While expressing his disappointment with his own weaknesses,
Paul knew where the power to break this cycle could be found.
    Thanks be to God, who delivers me
    through Jesus Christ our Lord!
    (Romans 7:25)

The same source that was available to Paul for overcoming the
temptations of Satan, has been given to us as well. Whenever
we focus on living in the Spirit (which means giving Him total
control of our lives), we will discover that we no longer have the
same level of gratification that we once had when we succumb
to the temptations to sin again.

Why would God numb the pleasurable sensations of sin? Wouldn’t
it have to be because, when we are gratified by yielding to past sins
(or even new ones), we will chase after them even more? But if they
become less satisfying, it becomes easier to break the vicious cycle
(with the help of the Holy Spirit).

The Holy Spirit is our friend who has the power to redirect our attention
to the things that please the Lord (which in turn, pleases us). He gives us
the confidence and determination to walk away from temptations. Satan
attacks our minds, and he wants us to believe that it’s okay to commit a
few sins here and there without affecting our relationship with the Lord.
However, God wants us to be committed to following His will over our own
will (and Satan’s will), doesn’t He?

ACTION:
What sins are you holding on to? When we yield to temptations,
we can experience doubt, denial, deception, disobedience, and a
feeling of destruction, can’t we? Has Satan convinced you that
you can continue doing the things that displease the Lord? Has
the evil one caused you to think that if you reduce the amount
of your sins that you are okay? He does that, doesn’t he?

As an example (and we could cite others as well), if we are drinking
alcoholic beverages five days a week, and we decide to reduce it to
3 days a week, Satan will have us to believe that we are doing better,
so we’re okay. However, God’s desire is for us to abstain completely.
We see His emphasis in the Ten Commandments. He says “Do not!”;
He doesn’t say “Do less”.

Do you feel you are in a vicious cycle of
being close to the Lord,
    then yielding to temptation,
    then experiencing guilt,
    then feeling ashamed,
    then admitting our failure to God,
    then asking for God’s forgiveness,
    then returning to the Lord,
    then feeling close to the Lord again,
    then yielding to temptation and sinning again,
    etc, etc.?

Are you trying to break this cycle in your own strength? Have you
forgotten that when you were saved, you were given the Holy Spirit
to live within you? Make a conscious effort to invite Him into your
daily life, and call on His assistance to help you with your struggles.
Even better, ask Him to stand between you and temptations and
fight your battles for you (then believe that He will).

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, You know the struggles I have with temptations.
I feel like Paul at times as I do the things I don’t want to do and fail
to do the things I want to do. It frustrates me when I am drawn away
from You, because I know how my actions diminish my fellowship
with You. I also know that the forces of evil are stronger than I am,
so I call on the Holy Spirit to help me resist the temptations whenever
they appear suddenly. Thank You for Your gift of the Holy Spirit to help
me become more pleasing to You, and less susceptible to the temptations
of Satan.”

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