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I'm not without hope by any means.
Doug:
Hi Rick, As someone who knows exactly how you feel I would like to share my experience. Thru my life I have worked to overcome the lust of the flesh and at times just gave up trying. A bit over a year ago God brought me to the point I could no longer go my way. Then came BT and things really started to change, I knew these thoughts had to change. There was some little progress when it finally sank in I can do nothing only God can change my thoughts and in His time. Progress was slow and there were sleepless nights due to the guilt. However over time God gave me relief from this sin. Now I feel like a recovering alcoholic and pray for God's continued mercy and help. This I know if He can change me He can and will in His time change you. I think it will not be an easy struggle the rest of my life and we will never know total victory in this life over any sin. I hope this helps in some small way.
Doug
rick:
Hi Doug, thanks for your response.
There is no sin I’m going through that is uncommon to man, I’m always questioning things in my life, probably what i'm suppose to do.
It’s the way my relationship is with Christ, some days I feel so close to God and other days so far away. Some days I can hardly wait to arrive home from work to study, others days, not in any hurry.
I know God is always there, once during a cloudy night I looked up towards the heavens and notice I could not see one star in the night sky but I know the stares are there, I just can’t see them.
Perhaps the times I feel so close to God is like a sunny day and the times I feel so far away is like a rainy day but never forgetting God.
God created both Good and evil for a reason and made man in vanity, to spiritually weak to adhere to those laws he put forth. I find thus so far that although sin goes against the will of God it certainly does not go against His intentions,
although sin is wrong and wrong only because God says its wrong I see how God uses sin in my life to humble me and also to draw me near. Those who are not sick have no need of a physician.
Everything I go through is ok, that is to say its according to Gods will and or His intentions but I’m not ok and won’t be until the former things have passed away and all things have been made new. God has declared that He will make all things new and I believe God.
I understand that all have fallen short of the glory of God and no one will be ok until God puts and end to all the tools He uses to raised up sons and daughters for Himself and sin is a great tool He uses to accomplish this task..
Do not misunderstand me, God hates sin and we should too but God uses sin/evil to humbles us.
I will keep going through what I am going through until I learn to hate those things I love that are wrong in Gods sight.
Its apart of the process, in the beginning we hate God and love to sin, then we start to love God according to His calling and afterwards we start to doubt our sins as God starts to humble us, then we realize we need to get sin out of our lives only to discover we have no power to do so.
And in the end we come to realize we have a will that is totally subjected to Gods will and as sophisticate and as intelligent as God has made us, we do not turn right or left unless God says so.
And so for this cause I am completely confidant that God will bring me unto salvation in His time in spite of any sin I have, am or will commit, if not in this age, then the age to come, for it is the will of God that all be saved. :)
acomplishedartis:
--- Quote from: Dave in Tenn on February 23, 2014, 03:12:33 PM ---
It's the "free" part of "free-will" that is false...not the "will" part. It's the FLESH that's weak in the disciples, not the will. Hang in there. NONE of us is without "hope", though many are without faith.
Rom 5:1 Then being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rom 5:2 through whom also we have had access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we glory on the hope of the glory of God.
Rom 5:3 And not only so, but we glory also in afflictions, knowing that affliction works out patience,
Rom 5:4 and patience works out proven character; and proven character, hope.
Rom 5:5 And the hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us;
Rom 5:6 for we yet being without strength, in due time Christ died for ungodly ones.
--- End quote ---
Well said Dave. I love those verses.
arion:
Well, since I'm getting older I'm very grateful for a lower testosterone level. I see these commercials on TV with the ads telling you to have your doctor give you this pill or that injection to give you more testosterone and I'm just very happy for lower levels these days I can tell you that! I wish I could say that I've totally overcome in those areas but I can't. What I can say is that the frequency is much, much less and for that I am very thankful and I tell God that often.
I wish I could say that I resist and have overcome in the face of the raging hormones of my youth but that would be a lie. I would rather overcome because of God's direct intervention in order to say 'NO'. But regardless, I'm just very happy to see most of those things ebb away in the course of time and I don't want to go back to my youth precisely because of those struggles. When I turned 50 a few years ago I almost thought it a curse but now I see it as a blessing!! ;D
As we've been taught we have to have experiential knowledge of both good and evil and as much as we want to overcome some issues and be done with them NOW, yet God still has some things to teach us in the process. God truly is working in us to get us to the point where we know experientially that if God doesn't do the overcoming in us it's simply not going to happen. The pride of the beast within us has to be humbled time and time again apparently.
theophilus:
I hear you loud and clear Arion! Yesterday I ran into this young woman that was with her little son. She is Hispanic! What a body! I cannot describe what this darned flesh felt! But I tell you one thing: she left me all frazzled! Oh, such powerful pulls of this flesh! I cried out to God to help me because I couldn't help myself! I don't wanna run into her again! >:(
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