"The Struggle"
As believers, we often make reference to our “struggles.” We read Romans 7 where Paul speaks of his sinful nature–the evil he does not want is what he keeps on doing…O wretched man that he is–and many of us get to the end of the chapter, close our Bibles, and walk away perfectly comfortable with what we call “the struggle.”
But wait for a moment before you move on so quickly…
The end of the chapter does not mark the end of Paul’s exhortation. After discussing the sinful nature, Paul immediately writes this, “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you.” We see here that Paul did not expose the sinful nature for us to be comforted or to be defeated with sinfulness. Not at all. This passage makes it perfectly clear that the “the struggle” in Romans 7 is not meant to be a concept that we rest on in reassurance as we often do, but it’s meant to be an explanation of why we have to submit to God and be “controlled by the Holy Spirit’”–something that many of our selfish, lustful, & rebellious hearts simply refuse to lend our willingness to. Think on that while we chat more about “the struggle.”
The dictionary defines struggling as making forceful or violent efforts to get free of restraint or constriction. We continually say that we “struggle,” but if we would be honest, many of us are not resisting sin at all. We are not making forceful or violent attempts to “get free,” but instead we are just habitually falling into the same sin. We must confront the fact that if we are not even resisting sin, that isn’t a battle or struggle–that’s called surrender. When we make no effort at all to resist sin (and in fact, we even pursue it at times), we are simply surrendering to our flesh. A perceived “struggle” with sin should not be the norm for a believer. It is, instead, an indication that our flesh has not been fully submitted to God in some area. The “struggle” does not have to be that we keep giving into sin; the struggle is actually that the temptation will still come, and we have to continuously be mindful to call on God. The Bible says in 1 Cor 10 that NO temptation has overtaken us that is not common to man. But that God is faithful, and He will not let us be tempted beyond our ability—that with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, so that we will be able to endure it. The question is, do we truly desire to endure it, or do we just want to indulge in it? (More thoughts on that question here).
Be encouraged today. Remember that the Word says in Hebrews 12 to “consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood…It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”
Will we submit to the Lord’s discipline, resist, & endure? Or will we prove ourselves as illegitimate children? (Understand more about your freedom from sin here).
My prayer is that we would all choose the former. Blessing to you, saints of God.
