The Crucified Life
Romans 6:6
As I write this there are two days left in Lent. Two more days without coffee. There are approximately 41 more hours without coffee. In case you are wondering how I’m doing, I am really looking forward to my first cup of coffee. So, was giving up one of the main food groups for lent hard? Well not at first, the first about three weeks were really pretty easy. Yes, there were times that when I drove by Barracks Road Shopping Center that I was tempted to pull in to Greenberries and get a coffee. But I would remember to pray for some of the issues in my life and that really helped. But somewhere in that fourth week it started to get a little harder. I would get up in the morning and start making myself a cup of tea and think, “Why am I doing this? I really don’t want tea. Drinking tea compared to drinking coffee is about as bland as cream of wheat with no sugar or anything else on it. And then I would start driving around Greenberries thinking you know God really doesn’t care if I drink coffee or not. One cup won’t hurt. And the temptation kept getting stronger. And the truth is God doesn’t care if I drink coffee or not, but he does care if I grow to become more like Him. He does care if I learn to trust Him more each day. He does care if I make a commitment that I keep it. And that is really want Lent is about drawing closer to God. I hope those of you that made that commitment to sacrifice one thing for lent had a growing experience like I feel that I had. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been worth it. One of our greatest weaknesses in today’s society is giving in to readily to temptation, self included. We get so use to the wondrous grace we are given that we forget that the salvation we have by grace has been given to us so that we might grow stronger in him. Watchman Nee makes a great statement in his book The Normal Christian Life. He writes “God’s means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker and weaker. This is surely rather a peculiar way of victory, you say; but it is the divine way. God sets us (free) from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man, but by crucifying him; not by helping him to do anything, but by removing him from the scene of action.” Paul wrote something similar in Romans 6, Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6) Giving up coffee for six weeks is certainly nowhere near a crucifixion, but it is those small steps that will help us if real trials come because we will know that God’s strength will sustain us.