INTRODUCTION: Throughout the next week, Time With God will continue to explore who we are in Christ. Our prayer is that you will grow in confidence and hope as we unpack biblical truth about who God has made us to be. Please note that there will be no Digging Deeper section.
GETTING STARTED
It is sobering and encouraging to consider that God calls us, the members of his family, to be holy (without sin), and that he gives us the power to resist sin and evil. To be born again means we have placed our faith in Christ and have received his mercy, grace, and Spirit to overcome Satan’s lies. From that point forward we are united with God’s Spirit, and we no longer battle our sin nature alone. His Spirit prompts and empowers us to be transformed into his image.
- When were you last convicted of your sin—to the point of confessing it, humbling yourself before God, and asking him for protection and help to overcome it?
READ THE WORD: 1 JOHN 5:18 (ESV)
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
RESPOND TO GOD
Comedian Flip Wilson’s stage character, Geraldine, famously claimed, “The devil made me do it,” to avoid responsibility for her mistakes. We do likewise when we believe our sins result from falling victim to temptation. How, then, are we to follow Paul’s instruction to “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” and to “let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:11-12)? The truth is that we are fooling ourselves if we believe we can achieve this without God’s help.
My acceptance of this truth and the transformation it has produced in me has been painfully slow. Previously, I sought God’s help or guidance infrequently and, as a result, continued to make wrong-headed and wrong-hearted decisions. His Spirit led me to see and admit that my sins were of my own doing and not accidental events. When I face temptations now, I am more prone to pause and ask, “Is this really what God would have me do?” And, if I take time to listen, I hear, “No, choose instead to follow me.”
He has strengthened me to do more than just believe this truth; he has strengthened me to live it. Confessing I am still a work in progress, I give thanks for how he has changed me thus far and ask him each day for more.
- Consider your level of dependence on God for his help in resisting sin.
- Knowing he will provide, ask him today to empower and protect you.