This excerpt from a daily devotional I receive in my email each day really got me thinking. Even though today’s email was more directed at overcoming the sin of lust, one could just as well substitute any other sin in its place.
“God uses the Law to expose the sinfulness of our lust, yet the Law does not give us the power to overcome it. (See Romans 7:7.) The power to overcome lust comes by exercising the gift of God’s grace through righteousness by yielding the members of our body. Thus, we are not to yield our members to unrighteousness, but “yield [surrender] yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments [weapons] of righteousness unto God. For [then] sin shall not have dominion over you …” (Romans 6:13–14).
This is explained in Romans 5:20–21, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Righteousness is the Greek word dikaiosune, which in the broader sense means “the condition acceptable to God; integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting.” “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11).”
~Daily Success email from Institute for Basic Life Principles, Command 7: Do Not Lust, Day 44 by Bill Gothard
This is how I customized it for myself:
“God uses the Law to expose the sinfulness of our {insert sin here}, yet the Law does not give us the power to overcome it. (See Romans 7:7.) The power to overcome {that sin} comes by exercising the gift of God’s grace through righteousness by yielding the members of our body. Thus, we are not to yield our members to unrighteousness, but “yield [surrender] yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For [then] sin shall not have dominion over you …” (Romans 6:13–14).
What it said to me:
1. The law shows us our sin. Any sin we are struggling to overcome.
2. Grace helps us overcome that sin.
3. Overcome it by:
a. Not allowing our flesh to give into it.
b. Keep busy with works of righteousness, serving Christ by serving those around us.
This got me thinking… it is just like trying to keep a kid busy with activities to keep them out of trouble. Denial of self-will for God’s will. Don’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. Do this by keeping busy at what God has called me to do. (… and not to get sidetracked by all the other stuff screaming for my attention that was not God-given!)
