Memory Verse: I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13
Read: Romans 6:12-13
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Message
As a born-again Christian, you need to understand and live by the nature of the new creature that you are. This is the key to your victory in this world. One character of your new nature is revealed in Galatians 5:25:
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts”
Once you belong to Jesus Christ by being born-again, your sinful nature has been crucified. Your nature no longer conforms to that which is controlled by the flesh because you are dead to the flesh. This is further clarified in Romans 8:9-10:
"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
However it does not end there. Armed with this understanding of who you are, you have to conscientiously by faith enforce this victory over the flesh in your mind. 1 Peter 4:1 says:
“Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;”
This day-to-day battle of enforcement and resistance will be very “painful”. The flesh is not going to like your stance; but you must let it know that you are dead to it and it cannot rule you. As a matter of compulsion, make no provision for the flesh.
Apart from the flesh being crucified, another character of your new nature is that through Christ, the world is crucified to you and you are crucified to the world (Galatians 6:14). This implies that you are dead to the world. What does this mean? Before we were born-again, we had friends or relations whose company we used to enjoy, people whose opinions mattered a lot to us and influenced us to do lots of things we did not really want to do. Many a times some people are found smoking not because they enjoy smoking, but because they were worried about their friends’ uncomplimentary remarks about their abstinence from such habits. Therefore when their peers smoke, they join them to smoke even though they know that smoking will send them to their untimely death. However, once you are born-again, armed with the mindset that you are dead to the world, such opinions will no longer matter. It does not matter what they say, you are determined to follow Jesus. You will not perish with the world in Jesus’ Name.
Prayer Point:
Father, thank you for giving me a new life in Christ; please help me to live by this new life till I see you in glory.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 TIMOTHY 1 - 4 and PSALM 22:1-21
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