Joshua 24:15 say’s, “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” May I ask that question of you today? Have you made that choice yet, and chosen the path that you will take to do your spiritual walking on? If you have not planned that yet, may I suggest one?
I John 2:6 says this about the Christian’s walk, “He who says he abides in Him (Jesus) ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” Walking in Christ is not always easy. But it is possible! However, when a Christian sins, they break fellowship with God until that wrong is made right through confession and repentance. When we sin, it's like disconnecting ourselves from the power source that allows His light in us to shine and enables us to live like we ought to.
The saddest thing that I have ever seen in my life is a person who claims that they are a Christian, yet has no evidence in their life that reflects that claim. God's word tells us that it will be by their fruit, that they shall be known as well as their love for one another.
Before a person becomes a Christian, they have one nature and that is, their flesh. Romans 7:8 tells us that in the flesh dwells no good thing. The scripture teaches us that after we are saved God gives us His Holy Spirit that not only seals us in our salvation but provides us with a new nature that guides and empowers us to live accordingly!
The Bible tells us that after salvation we have two natures that war with each other inside us. Our fleshly nature and our new spiritual nature. It is that war that becomes the Christian’s toughest battle. The reason is that, as our new nature wants nothing but to please God; the old nature, which is the flesh, wants nothing else but to do what pleases the flesh. For this reason the Christian struggles within themselves to always do the right thing, according to Galatians 5:1. However, the fact that you are struggling not to sin is one indication that you have the Holy Spirit in you and that you are truly born again.
Suppose you are in a boat sailing along when you notice two women in the water. One of which is struggling to stay afloat while the other is lying face down in the water, her body limp and lifeless. It’s obvious that these two women are in trouble. You take a life preserver, tie it to a rope, and throw it to them. It lands just a few feet short. You start yelling and yelling for them to grab the life preserver so that you can pull them in. "Come on," you yell, "Grab it!" One of the women, exhausted from the struggle of trying to stay afloat, reaches out her arm for the life preserver but falls short. "Grab it!" you yell again. She reaches again and her arm plops down in the water from fatigue. The waves hitting her face as she desperately tries again for the life preserver. The other woman is simply floating face down in the water. She isn't struggling at all. But, the other one is struggling for that life preserver. She is fighting against the ocean, the wind and the waves, all which are greater than she is and is beating her up and wearing her down.
Now, which one of the two women in the water is alive? If you say, The one reaching for the life preserver, then of course you're right! She is struggling for life. She wants that life preserver more than anything. The other woman is dead! Dead people don't struggle for life and spiritually dead people do not struggle against their sin. Only those who are dead and do not struggle have no life in them at all.
I John 2 reminds us that we are not to sin. The goal of every Christian that bears the name of Christ is, to not sin. The fact that you are struggling against your sin is a very good indicator that you are very much alive in Christ. If you were not struggling at all to overcome sin in your life, then I would say you might need to rethink your walk in Christ. 1 John 2 also tells us that, we know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands, verse 4 says that the man who says, "I know Him but does not do what he commands is a liar and the Truth is not in Him". It goes on further to say that whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. You see, The world and its desires will pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever in verse 17.
Hold Fast,
-Bren
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