SPIRITUAL WARFARE: No Middle Ground for Obedient Servants
45 Days of Praying for the Elections - DAY 36
SCRIPTURE: “Do you not know when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Romans 6:16-23
It is true that being saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ means we have been set free from the condemnation and bondage of sin’s penalty and power and brought into the freedom of a new life to be lived unto the true and living God. We must remind ourselves in this world that this freedom into a new life carries with it an expectation and obligation to become progressively more like God that will result in an obedience to Him. This process of sanctification for a believer never ends while we are on this earth in this mortal body. In this new life, we are to live under His transforming working and power in us so that we can become those through whom He expresses and demonstrates what His righteousness is in the total experience of our lives. It would be easy for someone to distort or dismiss what being a servant of God is supposed to be until we see the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just like He identified with us in the likeness of our humanity, our identification with Him personally and His example as an obedient servant to the Father is the goal of our lives as sons and daughters also.
It is because we have been saved by His grace (free, unmerited, unearned) and it cost us nothing to be saved by faith in Christ, it has become easy for some of us to misunderstand or falsely teach that being under His grace has no obligations. Our text for meditation reminds us that life under grace is where sin is incompatible with our presenting ourselves to God as those who will serve Him. As His servants in the world His commands, interests, priorities, and standards of righteousness become our purpose to live according to our new nature and what we stand for in this world through our obedience to Him. There is no middle ground between being a slave to sin and a slave of righteousness in obedience to God. As our Lord Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters…” (Luke 6:13; Matthew 6:24). Notice in (Romans 6:17), that the praise to God comes because this new life of obedience to God must come from the heart (wholeheartedly) and being committed (rooted) in the authority of what God has and continues to teach us about His standard of righteousness.
The question that we must ask ourselves, is this how we see ourselves? Freed by God from sin so that we can live unto Him as slaves of righteousness from the heart (Romans 6:18).
Our position as saved and free should make clear to us also what our purpose and practice should be in this world. Just as we voluntarily presented ourselves to live under the dictates of sin’s servitude in lawlessness and impurity leading nowhere, but to more lawlessness and things in which we became shamed, we, now freed from that power, should willingly offer ourselves in the same manner as slaves of righteousness so that the evidence of our sanctification will be seen. It becomes our witness. It becomes our testimony. It becomes our living praise and thanksgiving for what God has done for us and is doing through us until the return of our Lord Jesus Christ for us (I Thessalonians 4:13-17).
Prayer: Oh, mighty God our Father, it is true that Your working power in us is exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask and think. It is true that You have done a marvelous thing to us. Please, Oh God, forgive us for our sins of omission. Neglecting to stand up, stand out, and stand for the righteousness that pleases and glorifies You in this world. Please supernaturally encourage and embolden our faith to face the strong wave of ungodliness that has come against us and has even made some of us bow in compliance to it. In Jesus Name, amen.
By Pastor Wayne Cockrell
It is because we have been saved by His grace (free, unmerited, unearned) and it cost us nothing to be saved by faith in Christ, it has become easy for some of us to misunderstand or falsely teach that being under His grace has no obligations. Our text for meditation reminds us that life under grace is where sin is incompatible with our presenting ourselves to God as those who will serve Him. As His servants in the world His commands, interests, priorities, and standards of righteousness become our purpose to live according to our new nature and what we stand for in this world through our obedience to Him. There is no middle ground between being a slave to sin and a slave of righteousness in obedience to God. As our Lord Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters…” (Luke 6:13; Matthew 6:24). Notice in (Romans 6:17), that the praise to God comes because this new life of obedience to God must come from the heart (wholeheartedly) and being committed (rooted) in the authority of what God has and continues to teach us about His standard of righteousness.
The question that we must ask ourselves, is this how we see ourselves? Freed by God from sin so that we can live unto Him as slaves of righteousness from the heart (Romans 6:18).
Our position as saved and free should make clear to us also what our purpose and practice should be in this world. Just as we voluntarily presented ourselves to live under the dictates of sin’s servitude in lawlessness and impurity leading nowhere, but to more lawlessness and things in which we became shamed, we, now freed from that power, should willingly offer ourselves in the same manner as slaves of righteousness so that the evidence of our sanctification will be seen. It becomes our witness. It becomes our testimony. It becomes our living praise and thanksgiving for what God has done for us and is doing through us until the return of our Lord Jesus Christ for us (I Thessalonians 4:13-17).
Prayer: Oh, mighty God our Father, it is true that Your working power in us is exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask and think. It is true that You have done a marvelous thing to us. Please, Oh God, forgive us for our sins of omission. Neglecting to stand up, stand out, and stand for the righteousness that pleases and glorifies You in this world. Please supernaturally encourage and embolden our faith to face the strong wave of ungodliness that has come against us and has even made some of us bow in compliance to it. In Jesus Name, amen.
By Pastor Wayne Cockrell
Archive
2024
January
Gratitude Mixed with Faith Should Equal ObedienceGrace Comes In God’s TimingGOD USES WHOM HE CHOOSESSeeing What God Sees to Get What God HasA Life Verse That Is Good for Every YearSeeing Things as God Sees ThemThree QuestionsDon’t Worry About the FutureForgiveness Is Our Daily CelebrationPeace When We Do RightGod’s True Children Certainly Should KnowRegret In Missed OpportunitiesThe Attitude of Delight Is RightMeditation Deprivation Is EvidentARE YOU A DISCIPLE OR JUST A CONVERT?An Anchored Soul Won’t QuitGod Wants to Be BelievedFinding God in Our PainI Must Be About God’s WordWhat the Wondrous Word of God Can Do in a Willing ServantSeeing Things God’s WayGetting Along for Jesus SakeMeditating Brings Us Success In The Christian LifeThe State of Mind That Pleases GodPraised By the RaisedHaving the Right Knowledge for Real FaithWhose Mind Do You Think With?All My Heart & All My WaysWise with the Lord’s TimeNo Shame About What God Has SaidPrayer Is A Conversation
February
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March
LOVE x LOVELove is CommitmentSUNDAY MORNING PRAYER with Pastor CockrellTHE HIGHEST DEBT OF LOVEPREVAILING IN LOVE, AND IN THE LIGHT OF THE PROMISEReturn Your Love to METhe Loveless ChurchWhat Do You Want First: the Good News or the Bad News?POSITIVE FRICTION THAT MAKES US BETTERSUNDAY MORNING PRAYER with Pastor Wayne CockrellHis Love Versus My FearsJESUS LOVES YOUBe Surrendered to 'Love'Victory Over Fear: Life’s Small LessonsJesus, Our VictoryTRUST CHRIST, BANISH FEARSUNDAY MORNING PRAYER with Pastor Wayne CockrellHarmony and Discord Aren’t FriendsHOLY PARAMETERSBlinded by HateACT or REACTRESISTING ANGER AND HATE IN CONFLICTPeculiar PeopleSUNDAY MORNING PRAYER with Pastor Wayne CockrellONWARD & UPWARDHow To Fall ForwardThe Front Windshield is Much Bigger than the Rearview MirrorONE THING TO DOLooking Back Will Have You SaltyGreat Cloud of WitnessesSUNDAY MORNING PRAYER with Pastor Wayne Cockrell
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