"TO WHOM DO WE LISTEN?"

Good afternoon to All!

I am looking forward to telling everyone about our vacation, but my hubby hasn't gotten around to putting all the pictures he took on my flash drive so I can put them on my computer, and I don not want to do a post about our vacation without his wonderful pictures. He is definitely the photographer in our family.

For today, I will continue in God's Word.

This is Paul, speaking about the "law of sin" in our members (or flesh).

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. (21) Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
(21) I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
(22) For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
(23) but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
(24) O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
(25) I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 7:21-25 KJV

This passage always had not only my mouth tongue-tied when I tried to read it, but my mind tongue-tied trying to understand it. I understood what he was saying when someone else read it and explained, but to read it myself made my head spin. Below is the NLT Version of the same passage.

Opposition

I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But, if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

I have discovered this principle of life--that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 7:190-25 NLT.

When we are trying to make the right decision or even just to figure out what the right decision is can cause so much inner turmoil. We all have opposition within us. No matter how devoted we are to God, we are "spiritual beings in a fleshly body" which are at war with each other.

Now Paul was writing to the Romans to give them a clear picture of faith, but he also honestly shared his own shortcomings to help them understand how faith helped him in his personal struggles.

Admitting our problems and weaknesses is the start of overcoming challenges. When we go to God and admit to Him that we are weak and need His help, then we open ourselves up to allow His advice, and help. Sometimes He will help us Himself, and other times He will direct us to share our problem with someone else we trust that can help us.

Just loving God's law doesn't make us live it. We are sinful by nature and will naturally choose to do wrong UNLESS we have the Holy Ghost. When we accept Jesus into our hearts, and truly want to repent of our "old self", then we can receive the Holy Ghost. It is He who teaches us how to live for God and make the right choices. Even with the Holy Ghost to guide us and nudge us in the right direction, we at first will tend to turn toward the wrong choice, but if we listen to the Holy Ghost and abide by His nudging, we will turn away from the wrong choice and make the right decision.

The more we allow this to happen, the easier it will become to allow the Holy Ghost to guide us and help us make the right decisions. Of course we are not perfect, so from time to time even with the Holy Ghost we will allow ourselves to make the wrong choices. We are human and will be tempted by the opposition until the day we die. This is why God's forgiveness is so wonderful.

This is a battle of all battles. It is the constant thing in our lives. We will always have choices between right and wrong, good and bad decisions. We just need to keep in mind that there is someone out there who knows a lot more than we do, and He is ready to help us with any choice or decision we have to make.

I know this is Wednesday and I don't usually post on Wednesday, but I thought since I didn't post last night, I would make up for it today.

God Bless You ALL.