Deliverance from the power of sin

"Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity." Psalm 114:3

On a daily basis I am grateful for God's grace.  I try not to take it for granted, and relish in the reality that I am loved unconditionally. Most days I am able to keep the world and its negative influences at bay and not allow it to disrupt my behavior or speech.

Most days....but not every day.

Sadly, there are times when all the negativity begins to ooze through the chinks in my armor and I suddenly find I have said or done something that is not the representation of Christ I hope to project.  The driver I cut off because I was in a hurry to get somewhere, the text to someone, or conversation with words that could have been more grace filled. The attitude that I am the one who is of more value or importance.

Yuck!  The thought of these behaviors is disgusting to me, and yet, there they are, time and again in spite of my efforts to avoid them.

The words of Paul take on a rich meaning when I find myself in these places. "For the good I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 7:24-8:2

Oh what a precious gift God has given us.  Deliverance for the power of sin, and freedom from the tyranny and consequences.

So on those awful occasions when we find ourselves captured in its dreadful snare, we can cry out to the Savior and He will come and rescue us. In His embrace we will always find freedom and forgiveness and the grace which blesses us above and beyond our wildest imagination.

What blessed assurance.