This
week, Michael writes that Romans 8
reminds us what's really important through the trials of life this side of
heaven. Our greatest fight is to get to the point that we are convinced
that "I'm no longer a slave to fear; I am a child of God." Either
you're fearful or faithful. The enemy will give you innumerable reasons to
be filled with fear. However, thou will
keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in
thee. God always makes his Sovereign decisions with the best interest
of His children in mind. He has prepared the way before us ... for we are his workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works which he as foreordained that we should walk in it.
Ministry
is a choice. We get to change our attitude according to His will, not
according to circumstances and situation. Our responsibility is to choose
an attitude of awe of God and gratitude to God. It's not about us, it's about Him
... for His glory and not ours. God continues to bless us despite the
trails and through the storms of life. When Jehoshaphat went into the
battle in 1 Kings, he put the praise
and worship band on the front lines. The praise of God will go before us
and will surround us when the battle belongs to the Lord.
The
end of Romans 7 concludes with
Paul's lament ..."What I want to do,
I don't do, but what I don't want to do, I do. O wretched man that I am who
shall deliver me from this dead body?" How shall we respond to
this question? When the crisis comes and courage is required God expects His
men and women to have such confidence in Him, that we will be the reliable
ones. God shakes us to get rid of the extraneous things of life. What
remains is that which is true and faithful. The decisions that we make
through the crises of life build our character and our faithfulness.
The
answer to Paul's lament in Romans 7 is the theme of Romans 8:1-11. "There is
therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.... For the (New
Testament) law of the spirit of life in
Christ has made me free from the (Old Testament) law of sin and death. For what the old law could not do in that
it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of
the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the
spirit. For they that are after the
flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the
things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is
dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if
the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit
that dwelleth in you.”
Let's continue Michael's message on being a "Slave to Fear" on the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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