Date: Saturday, 24th February, 2024
Text: Romans 7:18b-20
Author: Pastor Adedeji Fadehan
Exhortation:
Is it your desire to do the will of God but discover that you just can’t no matter how hard you try? The fact that you are willing to please the Lord is a first step in the right direction. But you need to go beyond just being willing.
Willingness must be combined with obedience for you to hit the mark- (Isaiah 1:19). The blessing is in the doing beyond just willingness.
The word of God says, “Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice. If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are. They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like.
But if you look closely into the perfect law that sets people free, and keep on paying attention to it and do not simply listen and then forget it, but put it into practice—you will be blessed by God in what you do”. James 1:22-25 (GNT)
There is a subtle war going on between the flesh and the spirit. The battle field is the human mind. The struggle continues throughout life but the winner of this invisible conflict depends on whose side you are on.
Apostle Paul summarized the warfare as follows:
“For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Romans 7:18b-20
It is a spiritual war which can only be won by the help of the Spirit. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth- John 4:24
Prayer Nugget: Father, please help me to back up my willingness with obedience in Jesus name.