Police Devotional 8-12-20

Help With Internal Struggles

“Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” (Psalm 119:133)

If you know Jesus as Saviour but your Christian life is not so joyful as it should be, one way to rekindle your fire for the Lord is to spend time thinking about Him. Think of the awful death He suffered to keep you out of hell. Think of heaven’s beauties! “…Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) Think of the time one day when you’ll see your Saviour face to face!

“Face to face with Christ my Saviour, Face to face what will it be-

When with rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ who died for me?

Face to face I shall behold Him, Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory, I shall see Him by and by!”

“Face to Face” by Carrie S. Breck and Grant C. Tullar

When we take time to think of what Jesus did for us, it’s the most reasonable thing in the world to live for Him! “And that he [Jesus] died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:15) Unfortunately, another dynamic in our lives can hinder us from living for Christ if we let it: our sin nature, which is “…the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;” (Ephesians 4:22) The sin nature provokes us to act, speak, and even think in self-willed ways that displease God.

When a sinner receives Jesus as Saviour, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) Yet the self-willed sin nature doesn’t go away. As a result, we’ll have internal struggles between what we want and what Christ wants. “For the flesh [sin nature] lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Galatians 5:17)

Even as a Christian, you’ll probably still have weak areas for sin. If you had a propensity for a foul mouth, a bad temper, or roving eyes before you received Christ, you may still struggle with these things. Yet you’ll also have the Holy Spirit inside you to help you resist sin and to convict you to confess sins when you need to: “And when he [the Holy Spirit] is come, he will reprove the world of sin,” (John 16:8)

Say you’re on patrol. You see a speeder and follow him. What usually happens? He slows down, right? Why? Because he saw you! The presence of a person—specifically, someone in a police car—helps him do right. That may not be the greatest example of how the Holy Spirit works, but you get the idea. He is always with you, and two things He does is guide you to do right and convict you when you don’t.

The psalmist in our opening verse asked God to order his steps in His Word so sin would not dominate his life. That’s something powerful God’s Word does in people’s hearts and lives. The more you read it, memorize it, think about it, and strive to obey it—the more you let God “order your steps in His Word”, as the psalmist put it–the more the old sinful influences tend to lose their allure and sin tends to lose its grip. You won’t be perfect, but instead of “garbage in, garbage out,” it’s “superfood in, superfood out.”

Another important note: the more you make God’s Word part of your everyday life, the more you enjoy it: “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart:” (Psalm 19:8) Did you ever see in the Bible how to know for sure your sins are forgiven and that you’ll be in heaven when you die? Please go to www.clevelandbaptist.org

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www.clevelandbaptist.org, click “Helpful Links,” then “How Do I Go to Heaven?” to learn more.

Brian Miller 8/12/2020

Cleveland Baptist Church 4431 Tiedeman Road, Brooklyn, Ohio 44144 216/671-2822