Journal Entry ~ 09/21/19

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. - Romans 8:9-11

If we are relying on our own power, following Christ is not only hard, it's impossible. We simply cannot be loving, joyful, peaceful, patience, kind, good, faithful, gentle, or have self-control in our own power. Some may be able to tap into these attributes at different moments in our own power, but they are most often surface level and self-serving. It is impossible to consistently and authentically demonstrate all these characteristics all of the time. 

The kind of love that is deep and sacrificial, the kind of joy and peace that come in the midst of a storm, the patience and goodness that overcome hurtfulness in our relationships - these are only from the Holy Spirit. We are told just a few verses before this one, Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. - Romans 8:8. We simply cannot please God without the Spirit dwelling in us. 

But the beautiful part of that statement is that the Spirit is dwelling within us. The same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives in each one of us. Pause on that. The same power that conquered death, that was the greatest victory of all time, that conquered our enemy - it lives in us. We have that power. And the reason we have that power is so that God can produce in us the righteousness He desires. 

What an amazing passage when you dwell on it. Not only did God make a way to forgive us for all our weaknesses and sin, but He made a way to give us the strength to overcome those weaknesses by dwelling in us.  

The same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives inside of you and me. That's simply amazing to me. 


Press on ~ you are loved 💗

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Medical Update ~ 09/27/17

Medical Update 11/09/17

Medical Update ~ 10/02/17