August 3, 2013 … Doing What I Don’t Want To Do – Why?

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 215

Devotional Song: Go to this link  … I’m leading you to use this link and hear a powerful song, you may have heard, performed by Phillips, Craig, and Dean, singing “He’ll Do Whatever It Takes”, reminding and encouraging us that God is with the Christian to bring us to Himself … no matter what it takes!!

Highlight Passage of the Day: Hebrews 4: 1-2; 9-11 [The peace we all seek in Christ?!!] … [NLT] …  
1 God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. 2 For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. … 9 So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. 10 For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. 11 So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. 
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Contextual Study involving today’s passage found in Hebrews, Chapter 4 … Go to this link … 
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Reference Passage of the Day #1: Romans 7: 14-17 [Sometimes we just try to beat the flesh with the flesh; and that is unbelief in action.] … [NLT] …  
14 The law is good, then. The trouble is not with the law but with me, because I am sold into slavery, with sin as my master. 15 I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. 16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 But I can’t help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things.

Reference Passage of the Day #1: Romans 8 [Yes, the answer is here; … but do we believe it?!!] … [NLT] … Go to this link …

My Journal for Today: Today I took a little departure from Os Hillman in my devotional, being led (I believe by God’s Spirit - it’s a long story!) to read the 1st Chapter of a book by Craig S. Hill, which you can read by going to this link  [click on the graphic of the book to have linked access to chapters 1-3 of Hill’s book]. The book is entitled Bondage Broken; and coming on this information this morning was so personal and so compelling, I just felt driven to share the main points of Hill’s premise here.

 Have you, as a Christian, ever done – perhaps through fleshly compulsion – something you knew was wrong or sinful; … but you went ahead and did it anyway? And when this departure from God’s will/way occurred, what were the resultant feelings experienced in your mind/heart? … I would predict remorse, anguish, and guilt – to say the least! … Am I right?

Of course I am! As they say, “I’ve been there, done that, and have the T-shirt!” I know what it’s like to willfully leave the peace which God promises to the righteous and obedient believer … that peace describe above in the highlight passages of Scripture from Hebrews, Chapter 4. And you or I are not the only ones who’ve experienced this fleshly compulsion. Hey, … no less than the Apostle Paul writes about doing what he knew was wrong and experiencing the resulting feelings of remorse; and we read about his confession to such a lapse of faith in Romans 7 (see above).

Craig Hill apparently wrote his book, as Paul wrote Chapter 7 of Romans, to help Christians see that we all have times when feel weakness and our human default, from a lapse of faith and belief in Gods’ will and His way, is to use the flesh to overcome the flesh; and that strategy will NEVER WORK!! Think of how many men, in trying to find missing feelings of love and affirmation, compulsively turn to p0rnography, which is pseudo-intimacy, to fill up that hole of love in their souls. How many people try to drown their sorrows in booze; or take pain pills to quench the emotional pain in their souls?

And sometimes our lack of faith and our compulsively driven flesh leads us into addictive cycles which can never be filled with more fleshly agents; … can they?! But my friend, … there is always the victory promised in Romans 8 (see the link above). That’s where Paul wanted any Christian reading and identifying with him in Romans 7 to go. And it’s our choice as Christians! We can compulsively and faithlessly live in Romans7, professing “Woe is me;” and going deeper and deeper into fleshly strategies, which will never provide the peace and rest promised in Hebrews 4 above.

OR … IN FAITH … and choosing to follow the truths espoused by God through Paul in Romans 8, we can seek God’s victory over the flesh!! Yes, … as my devotional song for today declares, God will do whatever it takes to bring us back to Himself and provide the peace of mind and heart we seek, if – and only IF – we’re willing to BELIEVE what He declares in Romans 8, internalizing its truth, and living in the promises which He espouses therein.

What about it today, my friend, do we choose to live in Romans 7, compulsively choosing to use unsuccessful fleshly devices to overcome what is missing in our souls; … OR … will we choose to receive, internalize, and live in the truthful promises of Romans 8 and to walk toward the God who is calling us to live in His peace and His promises?

My Prayer for Today … Lord, I choose to live in the truths of Romans 8!! … Amen