Spiritual Power

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."

~  Jesus Christ

Recently, I've started trying to practice the first three Beatitudes found in Matt 5:3-5 and made a major discovery:

God is giving me the ability, by His grace, to say no to a sin that has plagued me for 40 years.

I have tried to "just say no", memorize scripture, be accountable, fast, pray, plead, grit my teeth and fight it but, in the end, gave up and accepted that this was my "easily besetting sin".  I became a casualty of spiritual warfare.

But God writes the final chapter...

God's grace is so wonderful, words are inadequate to describe it.  As I am, finally, making feeble attempts to practice being a disciple of Jesus, God is blessing me with the desire and power to resist temptation.  Even the ability to take these steps is coming from Him.  I know this because I've tried many times before and failed.  My previous failures came from trying to do spiritual things in the power of the flesh.

Will I fall again?  Possibly.  Will I stay down?  By God's grace, I will not.  As I keep seeing that without Him, I can do nothing but sin;  as I continue to be grieved with the sin in my life;  as I try to remember that offenses toward me are nothing compared to my sins against God, He will increase my ability to live a life honoring to Him which will, in turn, lead to stronger manifestations of these first three Beatitudes.

This is what I am experiencing as last night I could almost physically feel the craving of my flesh for sin.  Even as I began taking steps to satisfy this craving, God's power was working in my spirit and I began to see the struggle for peace in my soul was too great to throw away.  Praise be to God that He won the victory!!

By now, you may be wondering what this sin is.  A wise man once said that if he revealed what his sin was, others who had no problem with that particular sin would be less motivated to deal with their own struggle.  Sin can be as gruesome as murder, as vile as perversion, as silly as drunkenness or as "harmless" as little white lies, but it is all treason against God, the end of its work is death and must be overcome in the power of the Spirit.  So keep guessing, if ya wanna waste yer time.  I ain't tellin'.

I will, like my grandson William will be doing soon, probably stumble many more times before I finally get the hang of walking.  But God, in His great mercy, has given me a teensy glimpse into what He is doing in my life for which I am deeply grateful.