A Most Successful Man. A Miserable Man.

     I know of a man who accomplished great things.  He planted churches all over his world.  He withstood some of the most horrific challenges known to humanity. Abuse and even torture had been directed toward him just to silence him, and he would not be silenced.  The power of The Holy Spirit was upon him in such away that everywhere he went God did something unusual. He wrote prolifically and recorded letters/books that God used and uses to transform lives for more than two millennia. He led untold numbers to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.  In his earlier years, he was fairly well off as a key religious leader of his era, but he counted all that as if it were rubbish to simply please God and do God's will.  He could very easily be considered successful.

     However, I also remember him one day saying that he was really upset with himself.  He was, on that day, really down on himself.  He was clearly mad at himself and maybe even depressed because he felt like he simply was NOT good enough.  He expressed how his heart and mind longed to do the right things.  He even set it as his priority to do just that ... the right things; yet, he learned that he was coming up short of his goal.  He believed in overcoming.  It was his opinion he could overcome.  He assumed -- given that God has used him in real powerful ways- that he would be consistent and overcome. His thoughts were set like a piercing light on overcoming.  He expected this of himself.  He interpreted life as being a failure if he did not overcome.  After all was said and done, when he evaluated himself, he had failed miserably.  He cried out these words:  "OH WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM WHO IS GOING TO DELIVER ME FROM THIS BODY OF DEATH?"  Check out Romans 7: 24.

     Did you get this?  The Apostle Paul, formerly known as Saul AKA Saint Paul, felt like he was a miserable failure on this particular day.  Who would have thought it?  The man who told us to follow Christ as he followed Christ, on this particular day, would have led us into a pit of despair. It's really hard to believe that this guy could ever find himself in such darkness.  Nevertheless, he did indeed find himself being like a whole bunch of people who know what it is like to walk through the Valley of The Shadow of Death.

     I have been there, and I suspect you have been there.  It's like we have choices to make.  Or life meets us head on.  We have to react to it in order to live through it. At the same time we have the experience of a little devil on one shoulder tempting us to choose one way, and we have a little angel on the other pleading with us to go the other. Like Paul we have the best of intentions.  Yet we come up short.  We violate our own value system, and we follow the advice of the unchristlike voice. Darkness descends on our souls and we feel as Paul did... Like a wretch. And feeling like a wretch does not make us a wretch.  It's just a feeling.

     Now for the good news!  If we choose to go down the wrong path and find ourselves beating ourselves up, as did Paul, let us also choose to do what Paul did.  Let us choose to ask the right question. All to often we look for a flippant response that flips us right back into the darkness. Why not refocus?  Why not even ask the same question?  What not ask the prayer that is prayed to no one but turns into a prayer.  "Who is going to deliver me from this body of death?" The answer is Jesus is going to deliver me.  Then why not ask Jesus to deliver you or me or anyone.

     What is Paul wanting to be delivered from?  He wants to be delivered from his own wretchedness of multiple failures heaped on top of best intentions to do good. So he knows that he cannot  -- by his own works or strength -- save himself. He, therefore, chooses to trust Jesus to help him.  And in Romans 8:1 and following, after crying out to the Lord to deliver him, his condemnation falls away and is replaced with God's love, mercy, grace and forgiveness.  Now he can triumphantly say, Thank God it is Jesus who delivers me!  AND because He delivers me, I am not condemned! His darkness falls away, and he writes one of the most triumphant life changing passages of scripture ever written. (See Romans 8.)

      Have you done some stumbling lately in your faith walk? Are you beating yourself up?  Has your life changed lately, and coping is a little more challenging?  Why not become an overcomer each time you feel down and out? Why not humble yourself, like Paul, and admit you are wretched and cannot overcome all by yourself?  Why not cry out to Jesus admitting your present state of being.  Tell Him everything that is going on, including your own self evaluation.  Then pray sincerely 3 simple words:  "JESUS DELIVER ME!"

    Practice this spiritual practice consistently today, and then you will ...

Be Blessed 2day ... Especially Today

SoJourner