Today's Unshackled Moment was previously published as
December 5 ~ Stop Fighting, The War Can Be Over.
We all have those areas in our lives, patterns of behavior, habits and sins that we can't seem to shake or don't always want to. We know that at best they are slight distractions of self that hinder our ability to be of maximum service to God and others. At worst they are the bondage of destruction and death that are ruining our lives and killing us, although it may seem at times that we are the most willing of victims. Then there are those things that we want to do, or at least feel we should be doing, the unselfish things, the good intentions that we keep having that we also keep letting fall away.
Paul put it this way, For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do (Romans 7:15). It can be a constant source of stress, anxiety and frustration. I want to do what's right and help others, but I don't...do it or want to. I don't want to do what's wrong and destructive, but I do....do it and want to It's why we fail over and over at resolutions, it's why we can say quitting such and such is easy, I've done it a thousand times, and it's why we can make up our minds that starting today we're going to be new people with positive and productive attitudes and behavior but the new us rarely lives a month before the ghosts of self centered past rises up to reclaim the throne of our life.
So what? We're doomed to the cycle of failure and the obsession to destroy ourselves or at least place our own will over that of God's? Maybe we should just give up and quit trying? Now that's the idea. Yeah, I can simply stop all this fighting with myself and just live a totally selfish hedonistic life until I self destruct and die alone because I've hurt and pushed everyone away with my narcissism and selfish choices. No, that's not it. Wrong side of giving up.
There's a release that comes when we finally reach that point of realizing that we can't do it, we can't stop, we can't be good and selfless, we can't turn down the impulse of the instinct gone awry. We can't walk away from the illusion of pleasure, comfort and security any more than a man dying of thirst can keep from falling for the mirage and killing himself drinking sand. So, if we can never win, if we will never have the power, then it's stupid to keep fighting. It's the folly of pride that says I refuse to be beaten when in fact we were beaten long ago. But there is One who is greater than us, who is able to defeat what we can not, who can place within us the desire to love others and do right.
It is He who will fight for us, not with us but as we stand back and offer praises the Lord fights the battle. His power becomes our power. His capacity for love and service becomes ours. His rightness becomes ours. He transforms us by grace into what we could never be on our own. He makes us able to do what we could never do on our own, And He does it out of love for us without demanding that we earn it or deserve it when we surrender our lives and will to His care.
At first it won't be easy. It may feel the battle is tougher than ever as we flee the enemy to the safety of our new refuge. We have to be honest and look at what needs to be changed in our lives, where we've been angry, afraid and selfish. We have to be willing to let those things in our lives be removed and changed by God. We have to be honest enough to quit making excuses and blaming others for the damage we've done and become willing to do what we can to make right the wrongs we've done to others. We ask God to change us, to give us freedom from the bondage of self that we can love Him and others as we should.
At first it will take will and determination to keep ourselves from trying to reclaim the throne. To leave our lives in the care of God and under the command of His will seems to go against nature. But soon, we will see that it is in truth the most right and natural order of existence and that at some point as we tried to make ourselves of service and live within God's will the obsession to do those things that bring death and destruction faded into memory. The war is over.
I don't wake each morning fighting not to drink and drug today. I did at first. I thought I might die it was so hard to let God do the work and not run back to my old master. But the obsession has been removed. I am around people drinking on a regular basis, and it's almost never even a temptation anymore. When it is tempting, it's fleeting and then I return to sanity and my sobriety is never threatened. I no longer fight against the desire to drink and drug. I have peace in that battle because God did the fighting for me. Of course I am not yet perfect or what I shall one day be and still have areas where I fit Romans 7:15. Anger still takes me captive from time to time and I rage against, well everything, and watch my spiritual condition weaken as I succumb to the fire. I also know that if I take my will back and stop living under God's care and in His power I'll be drunk and or high again soon.
As I said at the start, we all have things and areas where we've given up, or we keep trying to fight the battle ourselves, where the stress and frustration and hopelessness cycle through disappointment after disappointment. But it doesn't have to be that way. We can live in peace rather than in constant battle with ourselves and our old nature. That desire to live for ourselves can be replaced with desire to walk with God, to love Him and others. But it doesn't happen because we determine to start living right. It happens when we give up trying, surrender to Him, do it His way and remember that the battle is the Lord's.
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