No Question About It, The Struggle Is Real!

Sometimes the power of sin in our lives can seem overwhelming.

When I was a boy, we had a large pine tree in our front yard right next to the street. We had thick hedges growing on both sides of our yard, so when friends were coming to see me or going to another house, they’d walk between the tree and the hedges. Over time, their frequent passage killed the grass that had been growing there and created a well-worn path.

This is essentially how habits – and sins – work. They may start with a single action, but if repeated often enough they can become behaviors. This can be good or bad, depending upon what you’re doing. Sinful behavior, when it happens over and over, can turn into a besetting sin, something extremely difficult to overcome. It becomes a familiar path that’s taken almost without thinking. 

 

Even as followers of Jesus Christ, we’re not exempt from this type of problem. Yes, the Bible says we become “born again” (John 3:3) and “new creations” (2 Corinthians 5:17) when we commit our lives to Him, but old sinful patterns can die hard – in fact, some never die at all.

 

Years ago, I had a friend who had gotten deeply involved with online pornography before committing his life to Christ. Whenever he faced a lot of stress in his life, whether at work or at home, he’d resort to pornography for relief. To use a computer term, it became his ‘default setting.’ After becoming a believer, his familiar sinful “path” unfortunately didn’t disappear. One day he’d succeed at warding off the temptation but would succumb to it the next, filling him with guilt. His struggle was real.

 

This, to one extent or another, is true for every believer, whether new to the faith or a follower of Jesus for many years. The type (or types) of sins we struggle with differ from one person to the next, but they continue to entice us. Even the apostle Paul, a leader of the early Church and author of more than a dozen books of the New Testament, understood this struggle all too well. 

 

He candidly admitted, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep doing” (Romans 6:15-19). Does this sound at all familiar to you?

 

Some have suggested Paul was reflecting on his life before his dramatic encounter with Christ while traveling the road to Damascus. However, based on the context of his writing as well as his use of present tense verbs, it’s reasonable to conclude that this “super-Christian,” like all of us, continued to struggle with sinful thoughts and behavior.

 

We don’t know specifically what those things were, but that doesn’t matter. The point is, we all have what the Scriptures call our “sinful nature” (Romans 8:5) or “the flesh,” as other translations put it, and God doesn’t eradicate it when we become followers of Jesus.

 

Does that mean we simply shrug our shoulders in resignation, reasoning, “Well, I’m only human. Nobody’s perfect”? Not if we believe the Scriptures. Because God clearly tells us that while sin will never be dead to us, poised to take us off course and back to our old, familiar sinful paths, we are dead to sin. No longer under its domination. And because of that, we need not wallow in guilt.

 

After admitting his own struggles with sin, Paul offered the following assurance:  “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).

 

He’s saying that victory over sin – regardless of how long it’s been with us – is promised through the power of Christ and His Spirit: “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering…in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4).

 

What the Bible teaches is if we’re true followers of Jesus, we don’t need to continue following the same sinful path. God graciously offers an exit so we can start following a new path. Something for us that, to borrow a phrase from poet Robert Frost, might be called, “the road less traveled”

 

There’s an old hymn called “Victory in Jesus.” That’s exactly what we have and can experience as we learn not to strive in our own strength and determination to overcome sinful impulses, but to be victorious over them – in the power of Christ and His Spirit living in us every day: 

“I heard an old, old story how a Savior came from glory,

How He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me;

I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood’s atoning,

Then I repented of my sins and won the victory….

 

O victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever!...

He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.” 

‘You Reap What You Sow’ – Is That Really True?

Most of us are familiar with the phrase, “You reap what you sow.” But have you ever wondered about what that means – or if it’s really true?

 

In one respect, it’s absolutely true. As I recently heard a speaker observe, “If you sow cabbage, don’t expect to reap carrots.” Although wouldn’t it be interesting if we could sow both cabbage and carrots together? We might be able to reap coleslaw!

 

However, in many cases it might be more accurate to state, “You reap more than you sow.” For instance, if you’re a farmer and sow a single kernel of corn, you still would expect to reap more than just one kernel of corn. Whatever we sow, we typically expect to reap a lot more of it.

The same applies to our actions and behaviors. As the adage tells us, “You attract more flies with honey than vinegar.” Galatians 5:22-23 lists what it calls “the fruit of the Spirit…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” If those characteristics are evident in our lives, it’s likely that we’ll encourage others to respond in like manner. 

 

We might see a corresponding result when people fail to exhibit such godly traits. A few verses earlier, Galatians 5:19-21 offers this sobering picture: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy….” 

 

Those behaviors aren’t likely to cultivate an environment of peace and goodwill. It all depends upon which we choose to “sow.” As Proverbs 15:1 observes, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

 

We find this principle summed up succinctly in Galatians 6:8, “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Indulging one’s desires might seem like a good idea, but if not controlled they can in fact reap disastrous results. On the other hand, if our intentions are to please God, “denying self” as Jesus termed it in Luke 9:23, the outcome is much more than good deeds – it’s life for all eternity.

 

Recently I read an interesting verse that stated, “Light is sown like seed for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart” (Psalm 97:11). We typically don’t think of light as a seed, or that it’s something we can sow. But we live in a world that seems increasingly dark. Up it seems has become down, and down has become up. When there’s great darkness, even the smallest light can make a profound difference.

 

Being in a predominantly agrarian society, one of the metaphors Jesus Christ often used was sowing seed. In the 8^th chapter of the gospel of Luke we find Him telling His “Parable of the Sower,” using the image of seeds for the Word of God. In the story, some of a farmer’s seeds fall along a path, others fall on rocky ground, some fall among thorns, and others fall on good soil.

 

The path, rocky ground and thorns are not suitable for the seeds to take root and bring about life. However, as Jesus said, “Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown” (Luke 8:8). The first three “soils” represented people who heard but didn’t respond well to the saving Word of God. 

 

Not so with the good soil: “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8: 15). If you’re a follower of Christ, you’re among those that experienced the Word of God falling on the good soil of your heart.

This for me raises two questions: First, what kind of crop am I producing? And second, am I willingly seeking to sow the seed of God’s Word in such a way that others might receive it and themselves retain it, find God changing their lives through it, and then beginning to produce a crop themselves, one that will last for eternity?