Daily Scripture Reading: Romans 9:19-25 KJV
Romans 9:19-25 KJV
(19) Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
(20) Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
(21) Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
(22) What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
(23) And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
(24) Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
(25) As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
Today’s Devotional Is DAILY RENEWAL
This chapter of Romans seventy-eight reflects, like a mirror, inward conflict in the Christian soul who has yet to learn how to use the full power and might of the Holy Spirit. You will notice that “I”, the personal pronoun, is used frequently. However, there are no words of the Holy Spirit who lusts after the flesh. It is the effort of a man in order to be pure and holy through the energy of his own resolutions and the exertion of his power and will. The will of man cannot exorcise its own evil, just as Satan can’t cast him out.
We are grateful that we can now turn to the eighth chapter. It is just as full of the Holy Spirit’s power to overcome evil as the seventh, and is just as rich in human endeavour. Only when we are able to surrender our inner self to God, can we become more than conquerors through the One who loved us. The only way to win the conflict is for us to be strong, so we must live the fickle, faulty, and ups and downs that the Apostle described.
We don’t know how the soul of man can be so filled with evil and incapable of delivering itself through its resolutions that lack the necessary dynamic force. This “law of sin, death and warring within our members” is what we find and it is bringing us into captivity. It’s a terrible experience when the current runs so fast against us and drags us down despite our best efforts to stem it. There has been no one who hasn’t experienced failure despite their most sincere desire to make right. The bitterness of our past defeats the better option, of which we are aware in our most noble moments.
It is comforting to know that God’s Spirit is ready to renew our inner man daily (2Co_4_16), and to free us from the law sin and death. We need it daily. It is essential to pray for the Holy Spirit’s renewal day by day and hour by hour so that we can overcome.
PRAYER for Today
O God, may our lives be close to Thee today, not through our own energy, but by the indwelling and anointing of the Holy Spirit who will teach us to remain in Christ. Recall us if our wandering hearts are prone to wander. AMEN.