Self

It’s really easy to fall into the trap of being addict to self. I say this, because I know it’s easy for me.  As I look back through life I can see a lot of the times when I am struggling in my relationships, I can find that I struggle because I am addicted to myself.  I want what I want.  I want to do what I want to do.  I refuse to lay myself down for the betterment of God’s purpose in my life.

I say all of this because I think sometimes we get wrapped up in ourselves and really have to take a hard look at where we are in our lives.  We have to evaluate if we are headed in the right direction or if we have taken a detour that has gotten us way off the path.

while back I was visiting my sister’s church in Kiel, Wisconsin.  Pastor Fred Coleman gave a sermon that day that was unlike any other sermon I had heard on Roman 7:14-25. 

¹⁴ For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. ¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. ¹⁷ So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. ²⁰ But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

²¹ I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
²² For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, ²³ but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from  the body of this death? ²⁵  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

So today as I reflect on where I am at in my addiction to self I reflect on Pastor Coleman’s notes.

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As a Christian, if I died to sin, why am I still hostage to this thing called sin?

4 things are established in Romans 7:14-25 that can help us understand our freedom in Christ…

            1.  The seriousness of the battle (vs15-18).

            2.  The closer you get to the Lord, the more sensitive you are about your

                failure.

Show me a Christian who does not feel the pain of their failure, and I will show you a carnal Christian.

            3.  The new you, created in Christ, moved into an old house.

When the sin nature was shut down, what the sin nature produced, lodged itself in your body or flesh.

The flesh is the ongoing residual effect of our sin nature.

How does the flesh take over?

            4.  Satan studies your lifestyle.

Satan organizes an idea to be picked up by the magnet in your body called sin.

Sin injects thoughts into your mind so that we think they are your thoughts.

Application:

1. Recognize the battle for your mind…Romans 7

2. Confess and repent of sin in your life.

3.Live out Roman12:1&2

4. Fellowship and find accountability with a mature Christian

*** Note:  To walk in the Light is to make Godly, Biblical decisions in the Romans 7 struggles of our lives.

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Hope you enjoy!  I know it has given me many reasons to pray and think about the battles that are going on in my life.