“It’s not me who wants to wake up this early,” he claimed, “It’s my body.”
Ah, we’ve just had our ‘fall back’ time change in Alberta, and here at the end of the road, we’re still getting used to it. The cowboy, who always wakes up before the chickens, is now waking before some people go to bed! When I groggily tell him that it’s still the middle of the night, he apologizes, but insists that it’s not what he wants to do, but rather what his body does automatically.
This morning, I chuckled as a thought about this blog post. The cowboy would chuckle, too, if he knew that I was linking his words with portions from Colossians 3 (although he’d prefer I looked further down the page to that part about ‘Wives, submit to your husbands’... I don’t think I’ll tackle that one for awhile !)
But when that wide-awake cowboy confirmed his desire to sleep longer if it weren’t for the fact that his body wanted to wake up, I thought about Colossians 3, and what Paul had to say to his reader about
The earthly nature (verse 5)
The life you once lived (verse 7)
The old self and its practices (verse 9)
and
The new self being renewed (verse 10)
This morning, I am reminded about my desire to do good, but my human nature to do wrong. Sometimes I feel quite alone in this struggle. Others seem to be way beyond it and living victorious (not to mention what appears to be ‘perfect’) lives. Then I read Paul’s letter to the Romans, (chapter 7: 15-25):
“So I find this law at work:
When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
but I see another law at work in the members of my body,
waging war against the law of my mind
and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
What a wretched man I am!
Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
I can totally relate. On my own I am helpless to do what my mind wants to do. My old nature takes over and heads its own way. Only when I yield to Christ, and only through His power, can my new self act.
Thank you, Lord, for understanding the war that wages within me. Thank you for loving me so much that you provide the power to win that war.
Note to reader: I’d love to hear from you on this or any other topic. Grab a coffee and drop me a line in the comment box. If you’d prefer that I not post it, just mention that.
