Struggles

I have been really struggling this week with the flesh. It's been a stressful week. A lot on the crazy side and a little on the stressful side. I have been SO hungry for the food that my body usually craves. Bread, meat, coke, CHOCOLATE. I have been tempted beyond what I feel I can bear much longer. Yesterday was the hardest day for me since my fast began. I was starving. And if you ask my family, between that and, well, quite frankly, my hormones, I have been nearly impossible to deal with the past few days.

Then this morning, just like you would imagine, God gave me just the words I needed. And I was WOWED by His ability once again, as if I should ever doubt a Sovereign Lord, and I found comfort in the words He sent me. (And FYI, this comes from an app I have on my iPhone. It's free, and it's one of my 2 favorite devotionals. It's by John Piper--- a tell-it-like-it-is-no-sugar-coating-involved preacher and author). But the verse from 1 Peter truly spoke loudly to me.

Since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. (1 Peter 4:1)

First it puzzles. Did Christ have to cease from sin? No! “He committed no sin” (1 Peter 2:22).

Then it clicks. When we arm ourselves with the thought that Christ suffered for us, we realize that we died with him. “He bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). When we die with him we cease to sin.

It’s just like Romans 6. “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. . . . So consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:6–7, 11).

Peter says, “Arm yourselves with this thought!”

Paul says, “Consider yourselves dead!”

The weapon for our vacation is a thought/consideration.

When the temptations of Satan come — to lust, to steal, to lie, to covet, to envy, to retaliate, to put down, to fear — arm yourself with this thought: When my Lord suffered and died to free me from sin, I died to sin!

When Satan says to you, Why deny yourself the pleasure of lust? Why deal with the mess you could avoid by lying? Why not go ahead and get that harmless luxury you covet? Why not seek justice by returning the same hurt you received?

Answer him: The Son of God suffered (really suffered!) to deliver me from sinning. I cannot believe he suffered to make me miserable. Therefore, what he died to purchase must be more wonderful than the pleasures of sin. Since I trust him, my susceptibility to your allurements has shriveled up and died.

Satan, be gone! My mouth doesn’t drool any more when I walk by your candy store.

“A Weapon Against Satan’s Summer Siege”-- written by John Piper