Christian Living
Larry Lilly's Letter Monday June 7, 2010
In correspondence with my friend, Dr. Ben Mott said,
"Let us resolve to keep up the fight, mainly with ourselves."
At first thought I assumed he was referring to the propensity to continue fighting among ourselves, but being Baptists no resolve is necessary as we are going to do this no matter what. I studied the context of our exchange, and grasped that Ben was referring to the never ending battle we face in conquering self. The enemy we see each time we gaze into the mirror, the literal mirror or the figurative one mentioned by James, the Word of God.
The biggest battle waged by the children of the Lord is the inner battle with self. Think about it; when you battle greed, envy, covetousness, lust or whatever face the battle wears, in reality the real battle is with unredeemed self and the new creature.
Commenting on this battle Jesus said in Luke 9:23:
"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."
Christ deals with this in several passages, but I prefer the above due to the emphasis on "daily." Truth be known every daily battle has to do with self in some form or fashion. The question, "Am I going to do my will or the will of Christ" is paramount in every wrestling match between good and evil and the battle field is in the mind and heart. Strangely, the mind attempts to manufacture excuses for the feelings in the heart to do as the moderns say, "How can anything that feels this right be wrong?" Only the mind saturated with the Word of God and the heart that is willing to deny self can prevail over the onslaught of selfish desire.
Most religious pastors, teachers and mentors strive to communicate to the neophyte the necessity of daily renewing self to subservience to Christ and his way. Failure in this is the root of all other failure in the Christian life. We surely do fight mainly with ourselves.
Larry Lilly Copyright © 2010 Use with credit.
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