Chapter 4, The Enemy Within (Pt 1)

I thank God for this book, and can't wait to read the full version, Overcoming Sin & Temptation.

I think this was the most eye-opening, and most convicting chapter so far.

First, I had to ask myself "Do I hate sin like Captain Ahab hated Moby Dick?" Honestly, I don't think I do. I think at times that sin and I have made a truce. We're like spouses who don't like each other, but have to sleep in the same bed, so we try to make the best of a bad situation. Well, sin is so demanding that doing so means giving sin what it wants so it will shut up.

Second, do I think of myself before God saved me as His enemy? Passages like Romans 5:10, Romans 8:7, Colossians 1:17 and James 4:4 make clear that God and I were at war before I was a Christian. Now, though I've been reconciled to God--an experience taken from the family where a broken relationship is restored--and my indwelling sin has been conquered, weakened and mortally wounded, sins "defiant malice smolders in [my] flesh" (45).

Third, I carry this enemy of God with me at all times, and he refuses to be appeased. The only way he shuts up is if I give him what he wants, which is an expression of his hatred for God lived out in my life through my disobedience. Either I'm going to obey God and arouse sin's anger, or I'm going to obey sin and arouse God's discipline, and this is constant.

I agree with Paul "What a wretched man I am! Who will save me from this body of death?" (Rom 7:24), what about you?