GodzServant wrote:
Hello there good to be a part of this Christ centred forum.
i got saved by the grace of the Lord in the year 2003. earlier days of my spiritual life life was good. but still i struggle with some of my weakness and some times i feel that things have become worse than i was before saved which sometimes pose threat to my spiritual life. For Example when some body hurt my feelings i could not forgive them easily . even though i keep this issues in my prayers.
Kindly help me fellow brothers
oh those early days. So filled with joy, so filled with gratitude, so filled with zeal to tell others, so filled with frustration. So filled with frustration at not knowing enough scripture, at fumbling through the bible to get the verses I needed to witness to someone, at the fruitlessness of my attempts.
Then, my struggle with a variety of life-besetting sins, oh why, oh why wouldn't the Lord take these things out of my life .... right now... riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight noooooooooooooooow....
Then I was flipping through my bible and stumbled across this:
Paul to the Romans wrote:
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, "Do not covet."
But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead. And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. NET Romans 7:7-12
Wow, what a pickle...How on earth....but I kept reading
Paul to the Romans wrote:
Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual — but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. NET Romans 7:13,14
I was dumbfounded but kept going...
Paul to the Romans wrote:
For I don't understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want — instead, I do what I hate. But if I do what I don't want, I agree that the law is good. But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but I do! the very evil I do not want! Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me. So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. NET Romans 7:15-23
Man, that hit it right on the head, pinpointed it with accuracy far superior than any set of coordinates for artillery, missiles, or laser guided munitions...and I felt it pierce my heart, and I was filled with sorrow...and I became
Paul to the Romans wrote:
Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? NET Romans 7:24
Crushed, and by now, I'm really reading slowly...
Paul to the Romans wrote:
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. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. NET Romans 7:25, 8:1
What? What? You mean...there's hope? Oh Praise God! Praise the Lord! Thank you Jesus! Thank you Holy Father! Thank you Holy Spirit! Oh thank you thank... you thank....
The weight of the penalty of sin was gone, and the power of sin has been broken...and we are to
Paul to the Romans wrote:
Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice — alive, holy, and pleasing to God — which is your reasonable service. NET Romans 12:1
Just what do they mean a living sacrifice? Then I heard in a sermon one day
Quote:
the problem with a sacrifice is that the animal had to die. Not so with a living sacrifice...it keeps crawling off the altar.....you really have to nail it to the cross...
and this is just what you are experiencing...just like the rest of us...we all struggle with sin...some small inconsequential thing that we keep hidden, out of sight, tucked away...taking it out when we are truly alone...and it's hardly surprising that everyone has their own and they are potentially all different....could be a big sin, like sneaking a binge in on a weekend, sneaking into the local porn shop, sneaking office supplies home from the office, or something else...whatever it is "some days you get the bear, other days the bear gets you"... sometimes it's just smarter to stay out of those woods!
It takes time to build defenses against this stuff, when the world keeps pumping this stuff at us through every media format, in the widest of possible scenarios...that's why diligence, disciple, and accountability to other men is crucial.
Time is always a factor... it takes time...