Victory in Christ!

So I gotta share something. Tonight my wife and I were fighting in the car. It was stupid, as most of them are, but my back really hurt tonight (a chronic problem for a while now), but it was on fire tonight ... like an ice pick in my back. Well, I was getting pretty frustrated because of this combination of things, and we were stuck in traffic, going somewhere I didn't really want to go. Well, I tried suppressing it. And it just got stronger. And the harder I resisted, the harder it became to control. I started snapping at my wife, then raising my voice in anger ... then we were both arguing pretty fiercely. Suffice it to say that I didn't act as a husband should.
Then I remembered some of the lyrics from the song "The Temptation" from Timothy Brindle's Killing Sin album (get it!). He was battling temptation and he used prayer and the Word. Well, duh.

But it motivated me to fight against this, even though my pride had arrived to the point of not caring anymore (anyone who's ever struggled with anger knows what this is). But I prayed and read the Word of God ... specifically Romans 6, which that song also referenced. And something changed .. I received the Word into my life this time. I read it as if GOD (not Paul) were speaking to ME (not "the church") and I believed it!

Romans 6.4-7
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.

I focused on the newness of life we have received. The unity we have with Christ because of His death and resurrection. My SIN WAS CRUCIFIED which means it is ALREADY defeated! I believe I am not a slave to sin because since I died with Christ, I've been set free from that sin. What wonderful news! How liberating this was!

Then down further:

Romans 6.13-14
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

We're told to DO something with this knowledge. Not only are we to NOT present our members to sin to be used for unrighteousness, but we are TO present them to God to be used for righteousness. I focused on the FACT that sin does not dominate me because of Christ and His death, so it did not dominate me! I presented myself to God for HIM to use me for righteousness. I went into the house and humbly apologized to her, prayed with her, and we went on to have a pretty good night with some friends and a couple people I'd never met before.

Praise God for our victory over sin in Christ! I learned something new tonight. I pray this may be an encouragement to someone else too. Read the word and personalize it. Let everything be about Christ. Listen to this song and then realize what God actually did to save us:



Amen