Evil

Rom. 1:18-32

How heartbreaking is the story of men's descent into evil! Even though God made His invisible attributes known, that is His eternal power and divine nature, since creation, men have rejected this knowledge by not honoring Him as God or giving thanks to Him. Instead men chose futile thinking so that the their heart was darkened. Extolling his great wisdom, they were really fools exchanging the glory of the immortal God for idols resembling mortal man and birds, animals, and creeping things. How truly foolish!

Because of man's actions, God gave them up to his impurities, to dishonoring his body in unnatural relations man to man and women to women. In these ways they committed shameless acts and received the due penalty for these acts. How dreadful to be given up by God! What hope is there? None. God also gave them up to a debased mind so that they would willingly do what they shouldn't do. Sin would seem pleasant and even right. In this mindset their life was full of envy, strife, deceit, maliciousness.They became gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, evil-inventors, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. What a list! And here in the midst of these terrible things is gossiping and disobedience to parents, things that in and of themselves don't seem that bad. But they have the same root cause. They are just not as far along in the maturity of their development. The saddest part is v. 32. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. They know the scope of their sin and the final outcome, but it doesn't bother them at all. They count their sin as a badge of  honor,twisted though it be. 

Sadly I see all to well this root of sin in my life. How strong it is fighting for ascendancy! Thankfully, I have the strength and grace of God to fight it.  I have the power of the living word to squelch it, but if I do not rely on my God-granted weapons and try and fight in my own strength, I am assured of failure. Flesh is unwilling to battle flesh! Perhaps I could sustain for a bit, but eventually flesh would win out. Why would I want to fight it on my own and not use what God has given me? My pride is most certainly the answer. My pride tells me I can do something to be acceptable to God. Oh so foolish! That is the root of sin all over again just in more acceptable clothing. I can do nothing apart from Him. Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.    

Father,

Root out my pride and my apathy. Make me abhor the sins that I allow to live in my body. Grow Your spirit within me. Help me to honor You as God and to be thankful for all You have done, especially for giving me Your Son, for saving my soul, for sanctifying me on a daily basis, and for coming back to take me to Yourself where I will live eternally. 

In Jesus name,

Amen