We Have Been Rescued, We Have Been Restored. We Are Well Equipped, Well Protected, and Well Armed to Withstand the Enemy

Today's Focus Scripture: Romans 7:14-25

(NOTE: Please scroll down past the devotional we read today for much, much more)


Cross The Bridge Daily Evotional by Pastor David McGee

It's God

Romans 7:15

"For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do."
(NKJV)

If you think you cannot identify with this statement, then you need to look in a mirror. The Apostle Paul, who wrote Romans and much of the New Testament, is being open and honest with his struggles... and we can also. We all struggle with doing wrong things. In fact, if it was not for God working through us, every attempt of our hands would be blameworthy. We all want to do well, but many times we give in to our flesh and end up doing wrong. The only way we can transact righteousness is by consequence of God in us. It is not just the 'doing'. Your appetite to affect virtue is an indication that God is working.

Philippians 2:13 "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (NKJV)

Your reading this devotion is affirmation. You are hungry for something more. Every time you do something good, you can know and believe that God is working in you. My Christian friend, take heart and be encouraged. The Creator of all the universe sees Jesus reflected in you.

Life Lesson: The fact that we want to do good is God.

LAGNIAPPE:

We read the passage Romans 7:14-25 from the New King James Version, however, the version below is the J.B. Phillips version, copyright 1962.

^{Romans 7:14-25}

^{J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)}

^14-20 After all, the Law itself is really concerned with the spiritual—it is I who am carnal, and have sold my soul to sin. In practice, what happens? My own behaviour baffles me. For I find myself not doing what I really want to do but doing what I really loathe. Yet surely if I do things that I really don’t want to do, I am admitting that I really agree with the Law. But it cannot be said that “I” am doing them at all—it must be sin that has made its home in my nature. (And indeed, I know from experience that the carnal side of my being can scarcely be called the home of good!) I often find that I have the will to do good, but not the power. That is, I don’t accomplish the good I set out to do, and the evil I don’t really want to do I find I am always doing. Yet if I do things that I don’t really want to do then it is not, I repeat, “I” who do them, but the sin which has made its home within me.

^21-25 When I come up against the Law I want to do good, but in practice I do evil. My conscious mind whole-heartedly endorses the Law, yet I observe an entirely different principle at work in my nature. This is in continual conflict with my conscious attitude, and makes me an unwilling prisoner to the law of sin and death. In my mind I am God’s willing servant, but in my own nature I am bound fast, as I say, to the law of sin and death. It is an agonising situation, and who on earth can set me free from the clutches of my sinful nature? I thank God there is a way out through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Ephesians 6:10-20

J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

^10-18 In conclusion be strong—not in yourselves but in the Lord, in the power of his boundless resource. Put on God’s complete armour so that you can successfully resist all the devil’s methods of attack. For our fight is not against any physical enemy: it is against organisations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil. Therefore you must wear the whole armour of God that you may be able to resist evil in its day of power, and that even when you have fought to a standstill you may still stand your ground. Take your stand then with truth as your belt, righteousness your breastplate, the Gospel of peace firmly on your feet, salvation as your helmet and in your hand the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Above all be sure you take faith as your shield, for it can quench every burning missile the enemy hurls at you. Pray at all times with every kind of spiritual prayer, keeping alert and persistent as you pray for all Christ’s men and women.

^19-20 And pray for me, too, that I may be able to speak freely here to make known the secret of that Gospel for which I am, so to speak, an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may speak out about it as my plain and obvious duty.