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Day 40: Overcoming Weaknesses (Bonus Lesson 5)

 We cannot motivate God to love us and cannot influence how much He does because it's His nature to love us with His all.


After Peter denied Jesus, he went fishing. It was an indication that for that moment, he was in condemnation and was doubting. He doubted if Jesus wanted to still have him after cowering before a mere servant girl.

When Jesus appeared to Him in John 21, He asked Peter three times if he loved Him. That question had many purposes and I believe two of its purposes were:

  1. To get Peter to reflect and realize that his failure does not mean he didn't love the Lord. His will was just not strong enough.
  2. Jesus' reply to feed His sheep if Peter did love Him was to indicate that even though his human will failed him, God had not revoked His calling, gifts, and purpose for Peter.

It's the same for us. We must boldly declare our love for Jesus regardless our failures. To entertain dejecting contrary thoughts is to let the devil trick us into guilt and condemnation. We must also know that no matter what, God loves us and remains faithful to His calling, gifts and purpose concerning us.

However, we must lay aside like Hebrews 12:1 says the weights that trip us if we will run our course and finish our race. God has given grace for that.

Titus 2:11-12 says:

“For the grace of God (His unmerited favor and blessing) has come forward (appeared) for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind. It has trained us to reject and renounce all ungodliness (irreligion) and worldly (passionate) desires, to live discreet (temperate, self-controlled), upright, devout (spiritually whole) lives in this present world” (AMPC)

So, grace is not just unmerited favor, grace is the power to do. We have the grace of God not just to be pardoned for our mistakes but to give us an advantage over our body's weaknesses and desires. Grace is to empower us to do God's will not give us an excuse to live recklessly and take His mercy for granted.

The above scripture also extends the work of grace beyond sin to our everyday life as believers in this present world.
If we continue to make excuses for our weaknesses, we will never have that intimacy we desire with Jesus, and will never fully enjoy the benefits of our redemption and union with Christ. Ultimately, we may wander from the path of life that we have come to know. So Apostle Paul gave one directive on how to win against the flesh:

“A true athlete will be disciplined in every respect, practicing constant self-control in order to win... I subdue my body and get it under my control, so that after preaching the good news to others I myself won’t be disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:25‭ & 27 TPT

Many versions put this in many different ways. God's Word Translation actually says to toughen ...with punches. It describes what Paul meant because in Greek the word translated subdue means to beat someone till he can't fight or resist anymore. 

The flesh will not give up control without a fight, and it won't do it once and for all. Whether new to the faith or not, we must be relentless in putting it under control every day.

I came across a post on social media once that said (not in the same words but quite similar):

“Many believers crucify and put to death the flesh only to revive it again.”

Our love for Jesus can be sincere but immature. As long as we do not deal our weaknesses, our love will remain immature. As long as our love is immature, we cannot enjoy and partake of the blessings of intimacy with Jesus. We cannot live free and untethered to anything until we put grace to work in overcoming the weaknesses of our flesh every day.

In the next lesson, we'll look at practical ways to do this.

PRAY WITH ME:
Thank you, Lord, for the grace available through Christ both for the pardon of sins and for my everyday Christian walk. I receive grace today to walk victoriously in every area of weakness. Amen.

REFLECT AND ACT: 
  • Write down areas of weakness, whether sins or just unproductive habits you'd like to overcome.
  •  Find at least 2 passages about them, read and note the instructions given or lessons you learned on how to deal them.

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