Inward Despair

 Satan is the Accuser. His work is to turn your eyes in on yourself and despair. 

The Spirit is the Comforter. His work is to turn your eyes to Jesus, the rest for our souls.

Michael Reeves.

Remaining Sin

 The problem of continuing sin in the believer

God's grace is sometimes spoken of as deliverance, when we are freed from the bondage of sin, and sometimes as restitution, when we renounce the old nature and are restored to the image of God. Sometimes it is described as regeneration, when we become new creatures, and sometimes as resurrection, when God causes us to die to self and by his power raises us to life. However, we must understand that deliverance is never so complete that no part of us remains under sin's yoke; that restitution is never such as to efface all traces of the earthly man, or to do wholly away with the old nature. As long as we are confined to this bodily prison, we always carry with us the remnants of our flesh which thus limit our freedom. That is why the believing soul, from regeneration onward, is divided into two continually warring parts. For insofar as it is ruled and governed by God's Spirit, it has a love and yearning for immortality which leads and provokes it to righteousness, purity and holiness. Hence its sole thought is for the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom, and it wholly longs for fellowship with God. But insofar as it retains its natural inclination, it is mired in the earth's slime, entangled in evil desires, and does not know what to aim for or where true happiness lies. It is held captive by sin and is turned away from God and his righteousness.

This produces a conflict which sorely tries the believer throughout his life, because he is raised high by the Spirit but brought low by the flesh.

In the Spirit he yearns fervently for immortality; in the flesh he turns aside into the path of death. In the Spirit he purposes to live uprightly; in the flesh he is goaded to do evil. In the Spirit he is led to God; in the flesh he is beaten back. In the Spirit he despises the world; in the flesh he longs for worldly pleasures. This is no idle speculation divorced from our experience of life; it is a practical doctrine whose truth we experience for ourselves if we are God's children.

So we see that flesh and Spirit are like two combatants laying separate claim to the believing soul, and turning it into a battle-ground. Yet it is the Spirit who wins out in the end. For when it is said that the flesh turns the soul away from God, distances it from immortality, stops it following holiness and righteousness and alienates it from the kingdom of God, we must not think that its temptations are strong enough to overthrow and destroy the Spirit's work and to extinguish his power. God forbid! The truth is that when the flesh strives to pull man down, it burdens the Spirit's work; when it seeks to divert him from his path, it slows and impedes it; when it tries to suppress in him all love of righteousness, it weakens it somewhat; when it contrives to blot it out entirely, it makes it flag a little. In the midst of such difficulties, God's servant must be so roused that his heart's chief wish and inclination is to yearn for God, to endeavour to seek him out and continually to sigh and lament because his flesh does not allow him to press on as he should.

This is the point Paul makes when he says: If we are God's sons, let us not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:12-14). When he speaks of conflict he affirms that the Spirit of God is the stronger and that he will win. It is easy, then, to see the difterence between the natural man and the regenerate. The natural man is pricked and goaded by his conscience so that he does not completely slumber in his sins. Nevertheless he is disposed with all his heart to enjoy them, to revel in them and to give them free rein, fearing nothing except the penalty which he knows awaits all sinners. The regenerate man, on the other hand, clings with the chief part of his heart to the righteousness of the law, detesting and loathing the sin which he commits through his weakness. It pains him, he cannot condone it, but instead takes pleasure and delight in God's law and finds it sweeter than all the world's enticements. Moreover he never sins knowingly unless it be against his own inclination, for not only his conscience but part of his feelings are opposed to evil.

–John Calvin

“Institutes of the Christian Religion”

Christ came for you.

 Christ came for you.

Christ lived for you. Christ died for you. Christ rose for you. Christ ascended for you. Christ reigns for you. Christ intercedes for you. Christ will return for you. The whole Christ is yours, and this is good news.

Jeffery Perry

Drive You to Christ

 The law is perfect. It reveals God's holiness, exposes our sin, and leaves the whole world accountable before Him (Rom. 3:19). The weakness is not in the law but in our flesh (Rom. 8:3). Therefore, do not lower God's standard when you fail. Let the law humble you and drive you to Christ, who fulfilled it perfectly and secured righteousness for all who trust in Him.

Monergism.

Bruisest Me

Thou Lord bruisest me, but I am abundantly satisfied, since it is from Thy hand.

--John Calvin.

Marks of a Child

"One of the marks of a child of God is that, although he sins, he does not 'love' sin. He may 'fall' into sin but he is like a sheep which, if it tumbles into the mud, is quickly up again; for it hates the mire. The sow wallows where the sheep is distressed."

 — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Take Away

 "God can take away his people's sorrow and fill them with exultant joy."

— Charles Spurgeon

You are Vexed

 You that are vexed at your own doubts are not to come to the conclusion that the Lord utterly rejects you. He discriminates between the folly of a child and the wickedness of a rebel: he knows what is in your heart, and knows that you are his.

Spurgeon

Unbelief of Anxiety

 "We battle the unbelief of anxiety with the promises of God. When I am anxious about some risky new venture or meeting, I battle unbelief with the promise: “Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God; I will help you, I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). When I am anxious about my ministry being useless and empty, I fight unbelief with the promise, “So shall my word that goes forth from my mouth; it will not come back to me empty but accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

When I am anxious about being too weak to do my work, I battle unbelief with the promise of Christ, “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9), and “As your days so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25). When I am anxious about decisions I have to make about the future, I battle unbelief with the promise, “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8). When I am anxious about facing opponents, I battle unbelief with the promise, “If God is for us who can be against us!” (Romans 8:31). When I am anxious about being sick, I battle unbelief with the promise that “tribulation works patience, and patience approvedness, and approvedness hope, and hope does not make us ashamed” (Romans 5:3–5). When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4). When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that “none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself; if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose again: that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living” (Romans 14:8–9). When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promise, “He who began a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:6). “He who calls you is faithful. He will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). “He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25)."

Sermon, Battling the Unbelief of Anxiety, John Piper.

No Accidents

 "To the child of God, there is no such thing as an accident. He travels an appointed way. The path he treads was chosen for him when as yet he was not, when as yet he had existence only in the mind of God. Accidents may indeed appear to befall him and misfortune stalk his way; but these evils will be so in appearance only and will seem evil only because we cannot read the script of God's hidden providence and so cannot discover the ends at which He aims...The man of true faith may live in the absolute assurance that his steps are ordered by the Lord. For him, misfortune is outside the bounds of possibility. He is not a waif of the wide world, a foundling of time and space, but a saint of the Lord and the darling of His particular care."

~ A.W. Tozer 1897-1963

Give me Strength

 “Give me strength against all my temptations, and patience under all my sufferings. In the midst of all my fears and anxieties, I would give You thanks for Your sparing mercy. I have grievously sinned, O Lord, and merit Your hot displeasure. But I would cast myself wholly upon Your mercy in Christ Jesus. Oh, hear me in the day of trouble. Send help from Your sanctuary, and strengthen me from Zion. Give me grace, O Lord, in remembrance of Your past loving-kindness — so to trust in Your goodness, to submit to Your wisdom, and meekly to bear what You think fit to lay upon me — that I may be brought to say at the last, "It was good for me that I was afflicted!" Grant this measure of grace unto Your servant for Your Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.”

~ John MacDuff 1818-1895, “Encouragements to Patient Waiting”

Lead them to the Gospel

 Seeking mortification of sin just to quiet the soul and find relief from the torment of the conscience, all the while neglecting to deal with the root cause of sin, is a result of self-love. Men are diverted from coming to God this way. This is of the most common deception in which men ruin their souls. They seek to apply themselves to victory over the troubling sin but do not allow their conviction to lead them to the gospel. They perish in their “reformation”.

~John Owen

Freed to Love Him

 When our sense of guilt is taken away because our consciences are cleansed by the blood of Christ, we're freed up to love Him with all our hearts and souls and minds…Our love will be spontaneous in an outpouring of gratitude to Him and fervent desire to obey Him.

Jerry Bridges

Struggle Against Joy

 Sinners cannot imagine that the things they love are the very things that keep them from happiness. Their fear of the light and refusal to let go of the darkness is a struggle against joy.

Michael Reeves