Victory or Defeat
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41
It feels like I can’t win this battle. Like most women I struggle with food. I want to eat it all the time, fatty, sweet, and salty and be a beautiful size 6 (not since the 5th grade!). Sigh. For the last several weeks I have not been treating my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. I am over-feeding it!
In the whole scheme of things this wouldn’t appear to be the worst sin I could commit. I’m not binging on whole bags of candy bars or anything close. Nor have I blown the family budget at the grocery store for my personal pleasure. What I am not doing is exercising self-control which is one of the fruits of the Spirit.
Many years ago I heard some teaching on Ephesians 4:28 which says, “ Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” The teacher went on to explain that the thief is to make a conscious choice to stop taking what doesn’t belong to them. As Christians we have the power to do this with any sin. If we want to please God we are to be obedient to God’s Word and the prompting of His Spirit.
With food as with gossip or pride, we often see the sin before or as we’re committing it. Though I don’t think I have been gluttonous I certainly have known that I was already plenty nourished as I continued to eat. Like the thief I should stop.
For other Christians this may be another sin. Some of us talk too much, spend too much, drink too much, waste too much time on the computer, and some just love their own comfort or desires more than they want to please God. I would have to admit that many times the food tastes good and it is a comfort. It is just the flesh wanting to taste sweetness. We are indulging in one way or another and not exercising our self-control.
Well, we hear a lot of talk about letting our sin defeat us, as if it has some power over us or that we can practice some prayer or ritual to attain victory over it. The truth seems to me to be that if our faith has been placed in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we already have the victory. Christ conquered sin. He took the penalty, He paid the price (death), and so sin no longer has power over us. We can believe that we have been defeated, that we don’t have whatever it might take to do the right thing – or to stop doing the wrong thing – but this is a deception or a denial of the truth.
Rom 6:6 says, “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.” We don’t have to follow our desires – we choose to. We can also choose not to. Perhaps the words we need to use are obedience and disobedience rather than victory and defeat.
I have not been defeated by food, I have chosen to eat disobediently. So, I will be praying but also choosing to accept the victory Christ has won. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I hope to start exercising my self-control!
“…and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:10
Dear Beth,
This one hits home with a LOT of us.. especially me. The picture (worth a thousand words)gives the reason.. Abundance! I believe we have become overindulgent with many things (pick your poison) and thank you for the reminder how out of focus we “allow” ourselves to become.
Even Paul struggled with doing wrong when he shouldn’t and not doing right when he should. Romans 7. Let us not use that passage as an excuse for disobedience and pray, by the Grace of God do all things to the Glory of God. When we fail, there is mercy. Blessed mercy. As the song says, “Saints are just the sinners who fall down and get up, fall and get up… etc. persevering to the end with the help of the Holy Spirit and His spirit filled people who are bold and loving enough to keep our feet to the fire and to lift us up when we are down.
ps. I was thinking of a snack before I read your post but it remained just that… a thought. Thanks!
Hey Beth,
Thanks for this piece on self control. As I meditated this week on each day of Jesus in the week of His crucifixion I was struck anew of what actually was taking place during His time in the garden.
here is an exerpt from my journaling on Friday:
“The day began early in the garden. In the wee hours of the morning He prayed alone.Those who had come with Him, His inner circle of three could not keep their eyes open any longer. They gave into the need for sleep. He comes to them and tells them to pray lest they enter into temptation. This of course teaches much about the relationship He had with His Father. In His greatest moments of temptation He prayed and His sincere prayer was, “Not my will, Father, but Your will be done.” I can’t say that I understand this deep trust relationship where Jesus as Isaac crawls up on the altar of sacrifice and allows His Father to raise the knife over His head. For the joy that was set before Him Hebrews tells us He endured the cross. Somewhere in the wee hours of Good Friday Jesus went from a heart filled with a plea to let this cup pass to a heart that was filled with Joy and acceptance. Something took place during the night that strengthened Him and sustained Him for the coming torture, abuse, and final agonies of the cross. Prayer is so much more powerful than we can imagine and so much more important than we would dare to believe. One of the greatest lessons of this Good Friday for me is that in order to stand tall in the face of evil and confront the accuser of this world first you must bow the knee to the One who alone must call the shots. When I can learn how to bow my knee and stay there until I am able to bow my will to His then I will be ready to face the temptations and evil of this world in which I do battle.”
As I read your article it hit me very strongly that we need the power of prayer combined with a real sense of the truth about the choice for obedience when faced with the temptation to disobey. It is always a choice that we make when we disobey and I needed a good reminder of that.I am thinking that perhaps the way of obedience is down a path of prayer.
Tery – you are right about the abundance! A blessing from God and yet a temptation that needs to be overcome through the power of God’s Spirit working in us. Already I was forgetting and you just kept me from a snack!
Suzi – I love your journals and your reminders to pray about everything! Bowing teh knee must come before bowing the will is possible. Thanks for your reminder! I’m still praying for you!