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Our Struggles...

          For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Romans 7:14-20)

Yesterday’s post was about the vampire named sin that lurks at our door, and - thanks to our past choices - often wanders in and we can’t make it leave. Sin is one of the rulers, authorities, powers, and spiritual forces of evil that we face. And things get even more complicated when sin uses other people to do its dirty work. It’s easy to think the person is the enemy. It is even worse when the person doing sin’s dirty work is us. This is because we make the mistake of seeing the person as the problem, when in fact, the problem is their sin or ours.

    Would it make a difference in our lives if we saw sin, and one each other or ourselves, as the source of our difficulties? I suspect it would. I’m just not quite sure how to go about it.

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