10TH JANUARY, 2021
Minister: Pastor Seyi Osanyinbi
Battling with sin and failure is a common experience for us all. Psalm 73:1 talks about the experience of the Psalmist in that regard. It is possible to listen to people’s testimonies and agree that God is indeed good to them but not agree that our experiences can be the same. The Psalmist agreed that God was good to Israel but not to him. Many a time, we compare ourselves with the wicked and feel like they have better experiences than those of us serving God. We pray and do not seem to see the evidence of answered prayers. It would usually seem that God does not answer prayers but that is the devil’s lie.
In the same way, when it comes to the issue of sin, we agree that God has given us an antidote to it like the Scripture says but this reality tends to look elusive to us. Faith is agreeing that the word of God is superior to our present situations. We must come to the understanding that our personal failures do not mean that God is a failure.
Romans 8:5
We have unholy desires because of the kinds of thing our minds are set on. It is always about a decision coming first before a corresponding desire. It is after we have taken certain decisions that our hearts begin to process the thoughts. We are weak in ourselves and that is why we need the Holy Ghost to help us.
Titus 2:11-12
Grace trains us to deny sin and all forms of ungodliness so that we don’t give them permission to operate. It empowers us to reject sin. Our thought life is where the battle is being fought and that is why we need grace to have the right thoughts. Our imaginations are as dangerous or as powerful as what we choose to use them for. So whoever controls our imaginations controls our souls and our lives. In the battle we fight, we need the Spirit of God to succeed.
Genesis 20:1-8
We did not see God appear to Abimelech in the earth realm but God said He was the one who prevented him from touching Sarah. So, we see that it is possible not to sin; it is possible that God prevents us from sinning.
Psalm 19:13
Presumptuous sins are sins we assume do not matter. We can never be okay and justified before God by what we think we can achieve or cannot achieve by ourselves. It is only by the help of His Spirit that we can overcome. However, the Spirit does not help arbitrarily, we need to always ask Him for help. Anything we do that does not show our dependency on God is presumptuous. Our responses to the issues of life show the kind of life that is operating in us. The desire of God is to initiate, process and complete everything about our lives. That is how He gets His glory. He wants to see us through everything; as such, we need to submit ourselves to Him.
1 Corinthians 15:57
This reality is not something that will fall upon us all of a sudden; we can only achieve it by yielding to the Holy Spirit.