Romans 7:14-25
WALKING WITH GOD
We as human beings have two components,
The body which Is the physical being that we see and
also the spirit or the souls which resides within us.
The spirit is the essence of who we really are. When
God said let us create man in our own image, he did not mean the body but the
spirit.
The body is just a house for the spirit and in death
the two separates. The spirit lives on while the body dies
In our lives, our body and our spirit are usually at
war with each another. Many are the times they don’t agree that is why paul
says in Romans7;15 that what he want to do he does not do, but what he hate he does.
I believe we have found
ourselves in such situation at some point. You know what is right but you find
yourselve doing the opposite. It is actually easier to do wrong than right because doing the wrong things is our default
setting. That is why we find a child being mischievous.
The spirit in us wants to be
good and do right but the body desires totally different things.
We all know that God and the
devil are spirits, they have no body. They can only use our body to accomplish their
purpose when we allow them
In the garden of Eden when
the devil wanted to separate man and God, he borrowed the body of a snake to
accomplish his mission. He could have used a cow or a dog to accomplish his
mission but there must have been a character in the snake that made it a better
choice for him
In the same way, If we allow
him, the devil will borrow our bodies for his mission based on what is in us
that attracts him to us. For example if we are full of hatred and jealousy we
become easy targets for the devil to use. If the devil wishes to create strive
in people, he knows the best person to use based on some undesirable character
he has refused to deal with.
When we give out our bodies
to the devils to use its important to
realise that his main intention is to separate us from God then leave us facing
the consequences like he did in the garden of Eden. The snake got the
punishment yet it never ate the fruit, it only give out its body for the devil
to use. This can happen to us as well. We get ourselves in problems because of
ledding our bodies to the devil to use.
What do wee need to do to
ensure the devil doesn’t use us? We must strive to live a holy live, a live
that is pleasing to God, a live that reflects the calling we have received, we
need to deal with our bodies. As paul says in 1cor 9:27 we must beat our bodies
and make it our slave so that we don’t preach to others and latter Get
disqualifies, We shouldn’t deny
ourselves the things and the pleasures of this world and still loss eternal
life. That is a double loss
We will have denied
ourselves the pleasures of this world and still miss the kingdom.
We must make our bodies our
slaves, we must be incharge. We must control our anger, our emotions, our
greed. Can you imagine doing all the work we do for God just for our bodies to make
us loos eternal life like it did to moses who preached of a land full of milk
and honey but his anger caused him to miss it, He briefly give out his his body
to the devil and his body cause him to miss what he had waited for for so long.
Jer. In chapter 4:3b-4a tells us to break our unplowed
grounds and not to saw among thorns he also also advices us to circumcise our
hearts.
Hosea in chapter 10:12 repeats the same words. That we
should sow for ourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of our unfailing
love. That we should break up our unplowed grounds for its time to seek the
lord..
Ploughing fallow grounds is a lot of work. And if the
grounds could talk I believe they would complain of the process. Ive had the
privilege of turning an area full of thony shrubs into a farm and it is not a
walk in the park. Ngamba igigatuika
mugunda ungirimwo ni wira muingi. No nginya uhure nyeki ndawa, uchimbe, uhure
haru… it requires a deliberate focused effort to get the results you want.
Similary, circumcision is not a massage either, it is
a painful experience that marks the beginning of another pharse in the live of
a man. We don’t become the kind of Christian christ is looking for through
wishing full thinking. Just seating and wishing and desiring to be right. It is a deliberate effort that requires us to
give up a number of things that our body loves.
Hosea tells us to seek the lord and Isiah adds that’s
we should seek Him when he may be found. For the wicked to forsake his ways and
the unrighteous his thoughts. This grace God has given us to fellowship with
him has an expirely date so this is the time to act. We need to do deal with
the so called small sins especially those we easily hind in our hearts.
Our salvation and walk with God is a deliberate
effort. we must deliberately decide to deal with many areas in our lives, and follow christ. The small foxes like Anger,
gossip, hatred bitterness, heavy hearts. We need to travel right in this
journey of faith. Otherwise how shall we run the race set out before us with
all the baggage
Let us not sow among thorns. When we serve God and and
our hearts are full of the baggage it is like sowing on thorns, it is work in
futility for we wont harvest anything. Let us join with David and deliberately ask
God to Search us and know our heart; to test us and
know our thoughts.
Let us ask him to create in us a clean heart and put a
steadfast spirit within us. That way our bodies will not be desirable to the
devil for his use
Let us remember that the body is already at home in
this world. It is not going anywhere else. Our bodies are already home, But let
us not allow it to de rail our spirit from finishing the race set out for us
