There is Victory

James 4:7 says plainly, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

It’s been a long time since my last post. Honestly, I have felt distance from God in the sense of not being able to feel His presence. I’m sure often this is the case with most of us. I believe in God and in the presence of God but I just am not experiencing it, and I tend to wonder why. I once asked a pastor at a church I was visiting and he came to me with the question, “Is there sin in your life that you have yet to repent of?”

Well of course there is sin in my life, I mean, I’m not perfect obviously. However, the question was really asking if I had repented of all my sin. To this I answered, “Yeah, I said I was sorry.” Should I really have to do anything else? The blood of Jesus has covered my sins so that I don’t have to be perfected but accept the grace that was given. But does my life truly reflect the grace given and accepted? When I sin it doesn’t.

Romans 6:1-2 says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” This is so true but so radical to modern day thinking. The truth is for my life that I have been saved by grace from my lust, so the fact is I shouldn’t lust any more to reflect the gift given by Christ Jesus and paid for on the cross. But that is not what happens with me, as I still have my issue with lust and struggle with it daily. This is also where grace comes in, but not a grace we can simply sit on. This is to say even though we mess up, we can’t simply sit on the fact that we messed up and carry on messing up. When we mess up, we are to get up and go the opposite way by the grace of God.

This sin in my life, particularly lust, has become more and more of an issue to me and so much more of a plank in my eye as I try to grow closer to Christ. This past weekend was a retreat with the high schoolers in my youth group from my church. This sin was made evident as I sat with a group of guys and contemplated the hold lust has on all of us. However, we have been saved from these chains! They no longer have a hold on us! But God where does this pull come from then?

I met with my group of guys last night and was met with a sense of defeat when it came to lust and other issues. But why do we feel defeated when we know that Christ has paid for our sins? Is it the longing in us for perfection; to struggle no longer with trifles? Is our passion to be completed in the glory of God on His throne in heaven? Quite possibly.

Girls, it’s probably hard for you to understand this issue with the common man, but equate this struggle with yours; why do you run back to it? What makes it draw you in and be captivated by it? Are you frustrated with constant feelings of defeat? Well know this, guys and girls, young and old.

Jesus Paid it All.

Romans 6:14 says, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” You have been set free and the grip of death is no longer over you. But where does the freedom start? The problem is we try to feel free and just live our lives the way we want, but we weren’t set free in the sense that we have no captive. The reason we were freed wasn’t so that we can find out where we are suppose to fit in or do just what we want to do. What are the following lyrics to the old hymn and common contemporary song?
All to Him I Owe.

Jesus has freed us to Himself. This is to say that we have been set free, yes, in order to fall in the role of slavery to Christ and the proclamation of His glory to the entire world. We have been taken from the hold of sin not to roam and be ultimately free but to give glory in all that we do and say. This is our role and this is where we will truly feel free.

So what do we do with sin? What role does it play in our lives? Believe it or not, it actually is used to give God glory in the end. James 4:7 tells us to submit ourselves to Christ. This is what was previously discussed; understanding that we are captives of righteousness (for more questions, read Romans 4-6). Our lives are to be actively lived in a way that choice by choice we give God the glory.

Resist the devil. The devil is also a tool for God to give Himself glory in the end. The devil tempted Jesus in the desert with every type of temptation (Luke 4:17). He uses scripture to resist the devil to show that He has built up such a strong immune system for the devil and his arrows that they literally had no affect on Him. We are to do the same; build up our relationship with God so that when the devil shows up we can resist Him with our knowledge of our call and our purpose: to glorify Christ.

This is all to say that it’s about living an active Christian life, not simply one that wears the title. They call it the Christian walk because it takes active effort to move from our place to where God abides. Don’t feel defeated, for you have been washed by the blood of the Lamb (And I say that to you as much I do myself). These issues are here for your growth and for the advancement of your relationship with Christ and His glory.

Be of good cheer – Forsake All