WINNING THE BATTLES INSIDE ME
Renewing Your Mind – Hope for Mental Health
THE COST OF THE BATTLE: ROMANS 7:15-25 (TLB)
1. CONFUSION
“I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to – what I hate.” vs. 15
2. GUILT AND SHAME
“I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking.” vs. 16
3. COMPULSIONS AND ADDICTION
“But I can’t help myself because… It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am, that makes me do these evil things.” vs. 17
4. SELF CONDEMNATION
“I know I am rotten inside through and through as far as my old sinful nature is concerned.” vs. 18a
5. FRUSTRATION
“No matter which way I turn I can’t make myself do right. I want to but I can’t! When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway! Now if I am doing what I don’t want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp.” vs. 18b-20
6. DISCOURAGEMENT AND DESPAIR
“It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong … In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin.” vs. 21; 23
THE CAUSE: I HAVE TWO NATURES!
“I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.” vs. 22-23
“So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in!” vs. 24a
GOD’S BATTLE PLAN FOR MY VICTORY
1. I MUST DEEPEN MY UNDERSTANDING OF CHRIST
“Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Romans 7:24-25 (NLT)
“For the new spiritual principle of life in Jesus Christ lifts me out of the old vicious cycle of sin.” Romans 8:2 (PHILLIPS)
2. I MUST DETECT AND DISARM THE LIE I AM BELIEVING
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8 (NIV)
• Behind every self-defeating act is A LIE I HAVE BELIEVE “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9
• To stop defeating myself, I must STOP DECIEVING MYSELF “When you know the truth, the truth will set you free.”
John 8:32 (NIV)
3. I MUST DECLARE MY STRUGGLE TO ANOTHER
“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen.” James 5:16 (NCV)
“Live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t do what your sinful nature craves.” Galatians 5:16 (NLT)