Pleasing the Lord

What is one of the first things we need to do so that we can please and honor the Lord?  You may think this is strange, but we will need to die!!  

We come to the Lord with our own agenda many times, wanting to call the shots, not realizing that, that is what got us in the situation we were in before our conversion.  Our sin nature would rise up and our flesh would dictate what it wanted to do and we would oblige its cravings.  It takes some of us a long time to crucify the flesh with it cravings and walk in the power that the Lord has given us.  Some people don’t seem to realize that they have been set free of the bondage of sin and that it has no hold on them any longer.  If you are a Christian, you have the power to resist sin.  Sin’s power was broken when you were born-again but many are trying to overcome sin in their own strength. 

Read what Paul had to say about this in Romans 7:1-25, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”

Every believer will have a struggle with sin and temptation if they try to overcome these things in their own will power.  Depending on the cross and Christ crucified is the only way to victory.  Being a believer doesn’t take away our sin nature so we have to control it, which Paul taught us how to do in Romans chapters 6 and 8.  Any believer who attempts to live a victorious Christian life without the power of the Holy Spirit to help them overcome sin, and is depending on their power, will fail.  Don’t forget, God does His part to help us also.

It says this in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

God put limitations on Satan and on what he can and cannot do.  This is a promise that we can overcome any temptation when we depend on Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit and not on our own efforts.  Our way of escape is through Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  We can only truly please the Lord when we crucify the flesh and put our total trust in Jesus, and this needs to be done daily. Something to think about!  May you have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!  PS don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!