October 17
The Continual Burnt Offering" I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish."
The inward conflict between flesh and spirit disturbs and bewilders many believers, often leading to the anguished cry, like that of Rebecca of old, “If all is well, why am I like this?” (Genesis 25:22). The struggle seems to cast doubt on the reality of conversion. It is rather an evidence of it, for the two natures are in every child of God and this produces a condition unknown in days before the new birth took place. The way of victory is not to fight the flesh and endeavor by our own power to suppress its activities, but to yield to the control of the Spirit of God. As we walk in the Spirit, whose delight is to conform us to Christ, we find practical deliverance from the power of fleshly lusts. It is only as we are Spirit-led we are enabled to do the things that we would and should.
O may Thy Spirit guide our souls,
And mould them to Thy will,
That from Thy paths we ne’er may stray,
But keep Thy precepts still.
That to the Saviour’s stature full
We nearer still may rise,
And all we think, and all we do,
Be pleasing in Thine eyes.”
—Doddridge