A Double Difficulty

“But we will give ourselves...to prayer, and to the...word.”

(Acts 6:4)

A HARD THING TO ADMIT

I understand that the spiritually elite will never agree with the following essay; it would be too painful, wounding their pride. But those honest and humble saints among us will be the first to give testimony to its embarrassing truth, as self-debasing as it might be.

A TWO-FOLD DILEMMA

There are many difficulties that confront a saint in their daily life. I list here two such troublesome problems. The first being the difficulty in picking up the Bible once you put it down; and even more difficult to put it down once picked up. Along with this is the habit of prayer. When on your knees before God, you never want to leave; on the other hand, once you rise it’s hard to put oneself in that fetal position again.

FROM WHENCE COMETH THIS PREDICAMENT?

This problematic double puzzle comes from the fact of the two natures we possess as believers - the old Adamic nature that wants to feed the flesh, and the new Divine nature that desires to feed upon the spiritual. This creates a constant internal war. Victory comes, I believe, by one simply saying a definite “NO!” to the old and an emphatic “YES!" to the new.

THE OUTSTANDING THEOLOGIAN J.I. PACKER HAS IT RIGHT

In his excellent introduction to John Owen’s book, Sin and Temptation, the now ninety-three year old saint makes a profound comment. The old saint writes: “I now days think that the best way to deal with temptation is to at once say no, and with that to ask the Lord for strength to keep saying no...to squelch the sinful urge.”

"The two major means in Christ's life were: The Word of God and His prayers to God; both brought Him in contact with God!"

(rds)