What is it
they say? Misery loves company; so I had
lots of company the other day. There was
no particular reason for my wretchedness, just a bunch of little stuff,
negativity, with a spatter of teen ungratefulness, and I decided to throw
myself a pity party, inviting my three favorite people (said facetiously),
me, myself and I.
The whole
thing could have been avoided had I done what I felt called to do that morning
which was to get into the presence of Almighty God and spend some time with
Him. Instead, I filled my day with lots
of little and mostly unimportant (for that day) tasks to do. If I’m honest (don’t know why I tell on myself this way!) I have to say part of the reason I didn’t spend ‘alone’ ‘quiet’ time
with God is I wanted some time off- like a vacation of sorts. {Boy, that sounds bad.}
Enoch spent
over 365 yrs- a father for at least 300 of them- before God translated
him. “And Enoch walked with God, and
then he was not, for God took him.” (Gn.
2:24) God translated / transferred Enoch-
he didn’t see death- to a different place because he pleased God. (Hb. 11:5) Did he please God all of those years? That’s a lot of time considering I’m only mid-forties and don’t always do the right thing.
Perhaps it’s just the average or majority of time God meant? I somehow doubt Enoch wanted a vacation from
God…
Well, only
God knows for sure about Enoch, but I know about myself better than anyone
except God, and I know I am not capable of being sinfully, fleshly, carnally
minded, wanting to control my own life FREE while in this mortal body. Heck, I can’t even get by a day without
sinning. How can I please God this way? I think that’s one of the reasons Paul talked
about the war he faces.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal,
sold under sin. For that which I do, I know not. For what I desire, that I do
not do; but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I do not desire, I
consent to the law that it is good. But now
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no
good thing. For to will is present with me, but how
to perform that which is good I do not
find. For I do not do the good that I desire; but the evil which I do not will,
that I do. But if I do what I do not desire, it is
no more I working it out, but sin dwelling in me. I find then a law: when I
will to do the right, evil is present with me.
For I delight in the Law of God according to 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 being in my members. O
wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? 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. Rm. 7:14-25
Paul is
saying the body is carnal and sold to sin.
We don’t do as we know we should, we do what we shouldn’t and so sin
dwells in us. In our humanity, there is
no good in any of us (Rm. 3:10) and
so the law condemns us. Our body fights
with our mind and Paul says what I often think of myself, “O wretched man that
I am!” There is a war that wages in
me. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose,
but ultimately the victory is mine through Christ Jesus for He has overcome the
world (Jh. 16:33)!
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law.
But thanks be to God who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
1Cr. 15:56,57