It’s Finally Friday…and I’m Pastor James St. John
Each and every day, we are reminded at some level of the frailty of life. The news is filled with what can only be described as “heartache and pain.” Our personal lives are often punctuated with relational conflict, loss, and the grief that accompanies it. For many, there are deep emotional wounds and the ongoing pain that accompanies them. These are too often denied, covered with the mask of unrealized happiness and then treated through self-medication (drugs, alcohol, food, porn…just to name a few). The challenges we face emotionally, spiritually, and physically are common to humanity.
There’s a biblical word that describes our condition. Are you ready for it? Wretched.
I’m not sure about you, but that’s not a term I use very often. It makes me uncomfortable. I will not pretend to know your heart or mind, but I venture to guess that most of us (yes, me, too.) would rather not be described as wretched.
The good news is, the bible does not leave us there in our wretched state. The bible also describes us as dead, enslaved, imprisoned, sinner…I think you get the point…yet, in every case something (or, better, even Someone) enters the picture.
That one thing is: love. That one person is: Jesus.
That’s right, into our wretched existence steps love and the result is: faith and hope. Who can deliver us from this body of death, raising us to new life? Jesus. Who can redeem us, slaves, and make us free? Jesus. Who can break the chains of our imprisonment? Jesus. Who can make the sinner a saint? Jesus.
There are many biblical references that would be appropriate to drop into these thoughts, right here, but I will leave you with one of my favorites. I encourage you to read it, then read it again…then chew on it…ponder it with gratitude…delight in it…then read it, again…read it in context and identify with the common struggle, we all share…believe it…believe God, then share it with someone else. Happy Friday!
24 Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.
8 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 7:14-8:4