EXPAND TO READ: ROMANS 6 (HCSB)
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 16): Since coming to faith, I have not truly given myself 100% as an obedient slave of righteousness to You, Father. I have my toes dipped at the same time in the pool of sin and the pool of righteousness out of my own selfish desires instead of being obedient to You. Please forgive me for my disobedience, Father. Forgive me for my back-and-forth and my hesitance to be all-in with my obedience towards You. Help to keep me on Your path, Father, so that I no longer allow myself to be a slave to sin any longer. I am too weak to do this alone, so I need Your strength to help me navigate the treacherous seas of this world so that I may be able to always remain on the path You want me to be on, Father.
PROMISE (verses 22-23): The last two verses here are again the best promise I feel You’ve ever made to us. You promise us that Your Son, Jesus, is our sanctification and that He liberates us of all of our sins. You promise that through Him we gain the gift of eternal life. Thank You so much for this undeserving promise that You have already made good on, Father. Jesus is our Lord and Savior and without Him I know for sure I would be lost.
ATTITUDE (verse 16): Here You essentially show us two directions we can have with our attitude of obedience. We can either be obedient to sin or we can be obedient to righteousness. Help me to navigate my way daily towards being obedient to righteousness, Father. I know I struggle with this attitude often, as I do frequently give into my sinful nature. I also know that with You I can take on any challenge in this world. Help me to remember that You are always there with me to help me break free of the chains of sin in this life, Father, so that I am only obedient to righteousness.
COMMAND (verse 12): The command You give here is concerning sin once we’ve accepted Jesus in our lives as our Lord and Savior. You tell us to not let sin reign in our mortal bodies. You tell us to not give into the desires that sin teases us with. Help me to be strong enough to follow this command, Father. I do struggle with this quite a bit, but I know that with You by my side I can resist anything this world wants to put in front of me that I may desire in the moment.
EXAMPLE (verses 11-14): In these verses, You give us such an amazing example of Your love towards us and how we should be living because of the amazing sacrifice You made on our behalf. You tell us that because of Jesus’ death and resurrection that we too die and are resurrected into a new life when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. That we are no longer bound to live a life ruled by sin, rather we can now live under Your grace through all things. Thank You so much for Your Son and the sacrifice You made for us, Father. Thank You for showing me that I am no longer under judgement of law for my transgressions, but instead I am under Your grace which allows me to feel and embrace Your love instead of my own guilt and remorse in this life. Help me to continue to become a better, more Godly man in this life, Father, so that I may glorify You and Your grace to those around me.
*DAILY NOTE: There’s a lot of conviction towards me about sin and obedience in this chapter. Like I said earlier, I do often like to dip my toes into the pool of sin and the pool of righteousness at the same time, but I never fully submerge myself in the pool of righteousness. I don’t know why I keep trying to hold onto my old self and my old ways, Father. I feel like throughout my faith, I’ve constantly been one to regress to my old self instead of truly embracing the new self You’re turning me into. I’ve seen and reaped from the greatness that You bring into my life, yet for some reason I still find it “easier” at times to simply go back to my old ways. Help me to be better at this in my life, Father, so that I no longer regress. Help me to always remember that the easier path is not always the safest or best route to take in this life and especially in my faith.
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
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