The Struggle is Real

1 Timothy 1:15-17 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever.

The verse fifteen of this passage haunts me….. I look at my life, my sins, and Satan bulldozes the path through my mind with the gravity of the sinner that I was, and still am. I look at the struggles I face each day, the failures before God each day, and Satan haunts me with them. I remember my pastor once saying, “If you knew what goes through my mind, you would never listen to me.” Satan continually hammers us with our failures, many times even leading us down paths of lies of the most painful sorts. He leads us by growing the gravity of our sins into things they never were; morphing failures into travesties, trying to convince us of unworthiness; the battle in my own mind is great at so many times, that I will not reveal it to those closest to me for their protection. Satan wants to convince you of hypocrisy; the level of that is only between you and God. God knows your heart, knows your struggles, and knows who and what lie behind them. Satan never wants you to remember God’s mercy, (withholding the punishment we deserve), he only wants to remember your sin. When I look at my life, I am amazed at the mercy God continually gives me, and only the love of God I cannot explain can explain the grace he bestows me.

When Satan hammers you, taking you down roads of defeat, remember the Apostle Paul and the testimony God built in him. This man lived a life of great sin, and proclaimed a life of God’s grace and mercy. This man persecuted the church, and then suffered a life of persecution. This man still struggled throughout his life; in one of his most personal accounts below, he opens up about his continual struggle, in his pinnacle writing to the Romans. Let the words of the man who wrote most of the New Testament encourage you, when Satan is seeking to defeat you.

Romans 7:14-25 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (ESV)