Tag: flesh

Strangely Dim

Leave a comment

strangelyLife is certainly consuming! So much thought, emotion, and energy is poured into the things of this fleeting world. We have to live, provide, and plan, but should this world be all-consuming? For an unbeliever, worldliness makes sense. It is all they have. But as a believer, I ask myself why. Why do I invest in things that will not matter in eternity?

Every time God’s Word is preached I get convicted. Last Sunday was no exception. My husband preached a sermon from 1 Corinthians 3:1-7 addressing the cause, characteristics and cure of carnality. Two things stood out in particular. He called them external and internal influences that cause worldliness. I like to call them the delights of this world and the desires of the flesh.

The Delights of this World

All these delights (or external influences) could be summed up with one word – things. Things we love, things we buy, things we invest in, things that distract us, things that cause us to sin, things….things…things…

Or we could call our things “childish pursuits” as David Breese did when he said,

“Strong sons of God are not perfected by childish pursuits.”

The cure if found in I John 2:15-17. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

The Desires of the Flesh

These desires are the internal influences. Not only do we battle against the world, but also our own flesh. I can relate to the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:19:

“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”

I want to do good things, but I don’t do them. And the things that I don’t want to do, those I do. This is the battle of the flesh, constantly warring within.

Although the war rages, know that we are overcomers! We overcome the delights of this world by seeking God. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,” Matthew 6:33.

We overcome the desires of the flesh by pouring God’s Word into our hearts and turning our eyes to Jesus. As Helen Lemmel so eloquently penned in 1922:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus;
Look full in His wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

If we allow it the world will certainly consume our life, but if we will turn our eyes to Jesus, seek the things above, this world will have no hold over us, and all these things will  become strangely dim. That is my heart’s desire.

A Song of degrees. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us. (Psa 123:1-2)

The Bully

Leave a comment

In 1890 Amy Lefeuvre captured her readers with a story about a little boy named Teddy.  My husband read Teddy’s Button to our children several years ago and it has since been one of my favorites.    Teddy wants nothing more than to be a soldier, like his heroic father who fell in battle.  But through a turn of events his eyes are opened to the understanding of the greatest battle of all – the spiritual battle warring for his soul.  One of my favorite parts in the book is when Teddy commits his life to “the Lord’s Army”.  He tells the preacher that he now wants to know who his enemy is so that he can fight.  After all, a soldier must fight!  The wise old man turns him to a full length mirror and explains that he will be his own worst enemy.  So in childlike candor Teddy declares that he will name his new enemy “Bully.”  Throughout the book, as Teddy struggles with the epic battle between his flesh and the spirit, he will observe at times that Bully almost won that fight but with God’s help he was able to overcome him.

A few days ago I was reading in the Psalms and was again reminded of this dear story. David wrote Psalm 18 after the Lord delivered him from the hand of Saul. “He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.”(Psa 18:17-18)

All I could think about was my own “strong enemy” that is “too strong for me.”  Maybe you know that feeling as well.  There are days in my life that sin abounds.  There are days that my flesh is weak and my faith is feeble.  These are the days that I am truly my worst enemy.  Satan does not need to come after me to tempt or discourage; I’m doing a fine job on my own. There are days that the war between the flesh and spirit rages mightily.  Paul understood this as well.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit he wrote, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:18-24)

It almost seems hopeless, doesn’t it?  But Paul goes on to say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Rom 7:25-8:1)                                                                                                    

So, on those days when sin abounds, I cling to God’s Word.  “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,” (Rom 5:20)

 And on those days that my flesh is weak and my faith is feeble, I trust in Christ and His imputed righteousness in me.  “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom 8:3-4)

And when “Bully” rears his ugly head in my life I remember the Words of the Psalmist.   “He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.”(Psa 18:17-18)