VICARIOUSLY VICTORIOUS OR SINFULLY SABOTAGING?

We all want to live in such a way that we experience victory in all areas of our lives…and no one really sets out to sabotage themselves, yet we all do it.

We simply make excuses to hide what is really going on in our hearts…we hide behind our unwillingness to change, and we try to cover our inability to do so on our own. We all fall short.

So many times in our own lives we have done the behavior modification thing that only lasts as far as our ambition or enthusiasm can reach, or until the need to be accountable to a person or agency is lifted. We clean up the outside without dealing with the inner heart issue.

Have you ever made the excuse…”At least this isn’t as bad as so-n-so”…or how about…”It can’t be that bad if I only do this once a week…I will do it tomorrow…Nobody is looking”… The heart is deceitful.

The excuse is a wall that we erect to hide what is really going on in our hearts.  It is a lie to cover, or hide under. In the moment the excuse doesn’t seem to be detrimental…it provides a pathway to escape. In reality it really is a pathway to a stronghold that steals from us emotionally, physically and spiritually.

How crazy is it that the God of the whole universe says where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, yet we choose to bind ourselves up; because we have chosen to trust in our own hearts and our own understanding, not acknowledging Him or His ways…

Why?  Because our flesh always looks for the most comfortable route…the path of the least resistance. 

That is why God’s Word  reminds us to stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage… and to walk in the Spirit and we shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.. enabling us to walk vicariously victorious in Christ…since we have crucified the flesh with its desires we can walk in the victory that Christ acquired by His death and resurrection…for we are crucified with Christ it is not us that lives but Christ who lives within us and the life we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God who died and gave His life for us.

So when our flesh rises up and an excuse tries to exalt itself over the knowledge of Christ we get to choose to cast down it and every whiny argument…We then also get to replace it with the truth of His Word.  Killing the lie dead in its tracks, repenting for any agreement, or attachment we have had with it, and walking forward in the Truth, subjecting ourselves to the boundaries of His peace and righteousness. We get to vicariously experience the victory He made the way for.

What are you going to choose vicarious victory or sinful sabotage?