The flesh always wants to be first.
Occasionally we are like terrible-tempered Lucy in the Peanuts comic strip. Lucy comes into the room where here little brother, Linus, is watching TV. He says to her, "I was here first, so I get to watch what I want to watch."
Without a word, Lucy marches to the TV and flips the channel to her program. Linusprotests, "Hey! You can't do that." Assuming her know it all stance, Lucy says, "In the
19th chapter of the book of Matthew it says, 'The first will be last, and the last will be first,'" Linus mutters to himself, "I'll bet Matthew didn't have an older sister!"
How many times do we allow our flesh to get us in trouble especially our mouth? The
bible teaches that we can have victory over the flesh and it comes through the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5: 16-17).
The fact of the matter is, we do not always conquer the flesh; it conquers
us. We've all been there, haven't we? We said when we vowed to say no; we yielded
when we resolved to stand our ground; we surrendered when we were determined to
fight.
The disciples of Jesus struggled with the flesh in Gethsemane. Christ knew the
force of the inward battle between the flesh and the spirit and admonished them to victory that night. What can we learn from their experience?
us. We've all been there, haven't we? We said when we vowed to say no; we yielded
when we resolved to stand our ground; we surrendered when we were determined to
fight.
The disciples of Jesus struggled with the flesh in Gethsemane. Christ knew the
force of the inward battle between the flesh and the spirit and admonished them to victory that night. What can we learn from their experience?
* Know that you are vulnerable—"The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak"
(Matthew 26: 41)
* Pay attention—Jesus asked the disciples to watch, be on guard.
* Satan does not give up easily—Luke 4:13 records, "When the devil had finished
all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time."
The devil always comes back. Just because we win a spiritual battle, it doesn't mean we won't face the same battle again later.
Victory is not a single event but a process. So we need to be on our guard when the Enemy returns with another battle.
Also, we must learn to battle from a different position. The position of standing! “Having done all to stand, stand therefore . . . “ -Ephesians 6:13
We are not to move out of the presence of God. We are just to stand with our whole armor on and do not be distracted by the tactics of the enemy and move out of the Father’s presence. You will WIN every time if you remember this.
Blessings,
Ric