Switchfoot-The War Inside
Do you have times where
you argue with yourself? You know what
you should do, but maybe that isn’t what you want to do. Maybe you aren’t even
sure which choice you should be making anymore.
It happens all the time. Let’s
hear how Paul explains it to the Romans.
14We
know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to
sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do
not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to
do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I
myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18For I know that
good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.For I have the
desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For I do
not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on
doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I
who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So
I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with
me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but
I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and
making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24What a
wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to
death? 25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our
Lord!
It can definitely be a
little confusing. To greatly simplify
Paul here, I think he is saying that we are all tempted by sin. Sometimes we are so mislead by Satan that we
don’t even know what is right anymore.
If we try to fight that temptation by ourselves we probably won’t win. We end up with a war inside that confuses us
too much. The great news that we need to
remember is that Jesus already defeated Satan.
When He died on the cross he took our sins to hell, battled Satan and
won. So we can overcome the temptations
if we actually turn to Jesus for help.
In one week we will have
Ash Wednesday service, which marks the beginning of Lent. Lent is the period leading up to Easter. You may know Lent as a time that people “give
up” something that they like. Almost
every year I can remember someone (or a lot of people) saying that they were
giving up chocolate for Lent. My antagonistic
response was usually something to the effect of “and how does that make you a
better Christian?” I don’t think the
Bible tells us that chocolate is bad so the connection between chocolate and
lent seemed a stretch.
So why should we “give up”
something we like during Lent? I’m going to answer that by asking another
question. Have you ever sinned?
(Obviously yes) Is that sin forgiven? (Yes) Why is it forgiven? (Jesus’ pain
and suffering and murder on the cross).
So if Jesus suffered so much pain for the forgiveness of your sin, the
least you could do is suffer through a month or so without a candy bar.
What if we take it a step further? Let’s say on average you have a little
chocolate 3 times a day. What if,
instead of just skipping the chocolate, you also took 2 minutes to pray? Now you are paying respect to Jesus’
suffering by not feeding your chocolate temptation and you are spending time
with God. Do you think praying 3 more
times a day could make a difference in your life? Maybe it would help take care of some of the
wars inside.
Questions:
1.
Have
you ever given up anything for lent? If so, did it make a difference in your
life? Why or why not?
2.
What
happens if you don’t make it all the way through Lent? Do you have someone you can share your plan
with to help make you more successful?
3.
How
do you handle the battles going on inside your head? Do you think you let Satan win
sometimes? How can you improve the odds
of making the right choice?
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