“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” Romans 13:14 Make no provision for the flesh!!!
John MacArthur has a book of prayers from which I begin my morning study. This morning as I reflected on his prayer, which I’ll share at the end, I walked over to pray and noticed not just dust on my coffee table but chucks of dirt. (Of course, that is the Enemy trying to divert my attention from God to worldly endeavors, which worked for a minute.) And I thought, it hasn’t been that long since I cleaned that table! How quickly it again needs attention. WOW! Immediately, I realized that it is the same thing Pastor MacArthur was asking in his prayer. And I began thinking of what our lives would look like unchecked by the Word, the Spirit, and other believers. My mind went to how bad a house can look if left to itself even without occupants much more with occupants. Then I began to think of the wretched sinfulness of those in scripture who had no desire to follow God and no moral compass. Of course, on I continued to the things I’ve seen and heard in my own lifetime that is a result of sin unchecked.
Even as I write this, I am calling to mind my own prayer that I started the day with about a sin of the mind that had to be confessed to God with repentance and grief because I sinned against a suffering, bleeding Savior Who had secured my salvation!! Yes, a sin of the mind, one that no one knows about but God. We MUST NOT make ANY provision for the flesh or our “house” will be consumed by filth before we know it!
I really could go on with these thoughts but I’d rather share John Mac’s prayer. May it be every believer’s prayer for each day as we live in a world of sin and still deal with our own sin. “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make NO provision for the flesh!”
“Empower us unto holiness as we seek to walk in a way that is consistent with Your wonderful love and Your perfect righteousness. Give us humility to know that no matter how we resolve to live to Your honor, we have no strength of our own to accomplish that end. So we walk by faith from day to day, depending on our heavenly Father to meet our needs. Grant us more of the faith that overcomes the world. It is our blessed privilege as Your children to come boldly to the throne of grace again and again, [Did you get that? AGAIN AND AGAIN!!] where we always receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Christ paid an infinite price to cover our sins, and therefore the wellspring of Your mercy is free and inexhaustible. Such is the great love You bestowed on us, even when we were dead in our trespasses.”
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