No matter the battles won or the foes defeated on my own I am nothing. Maturity in the Lord would tell me to be on guard against the belief I had anything to do with previous victories but the flesh is strong and continually offers reasons why I can wield weapons on my own. However, my spirit has learned the lesson of listening and my soul recognizes my Savior’s touch gently leading me where I am to go. Sometimes I can see what is on the horizon and I can feel my flesh cringe, knowing what is to come may cause pain or sorrow but my spirit knows God has promised purpose and ultimately I know He knows best.
(Jeremiah 17:9 MKJV) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?
Without Christ my heart is entirely selfish, my motives for the things I do benefit me alone. However with Christ my heart is renewed so that it resembles the heart of my Savior and King but to turn from Him is to return to that which was left behind. Again the mature follower of Christ recognizes even the smallest bits of selfishness and cast them aside therefore maintaining a continuity of Christ’s likeness in all that he or she says and does, not for their glory but the glory of the One that leads them and there my friend is the battle and unending struggle. For in this life I am required to face opposition, how many times have I cried out to Jesus to take away the things that so easily beset me but this is the one question that remains unanswered and persistently unresolved. It would seem there are victories ahead of me and it is through these victories my spirit is strengthened yet there remains battles that will not be won until Jesus returns or this life is over, which causes me to remain at the feet of Jesus, on my face, so that I will know just how desperate I am for His guidance. In the end the difference between the believer and the sinner is the understanding of condition of one’s own heart and your inability to change it without Christ.
