Obtaining Victory Over Sin - NetBibleStudy.com

Victory Over Sin 65~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 9What To Do About Our “Will”We all have heard someone, possibly on a diet, say, “I just don’t have any willpower.” Isn’t it frustrating to know what you ought to do and yet not seem to be able todo it? The gap between knowledge and performance is often embarrassing. We can’tseem to get our self moving in the right direction. Yet, unless we can use our “will”effectively, we will be paralyzed in our Christian life.Can our will be disciplined? The answer is, “Yes!” We do not need to driftaimlessly through life, carried like a cork on a river. We can learn to make responsibledecisions, and say, “No” to the path of lest resistance!What Is Our Will?Our will is our decision-making faculty. Often it is caught between our thoughtsand our desires. Our emotions express how we feel, our mind says what we know, butour will tells what we want. The weary disciples experienced this tension inGethsemane. Christ asked them twice to watch and pray with Him, but they fell asleep.Jesus commented, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; thespirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).Let’s take this problem a little closer to home – to our own bedroom, forinstance. The alarm rings at 6:00 A.M. and our mind knows full well what that means:we should carefully move from a horizontal to a vertical position. But our body feelsdifferently about the whole matter. Now our will has to make a decision that cannotsatisfy both the body and the mind. And our will has only a few moments to decide orwe will drift into unconscious comfort for another hour, or so.What determines whether our will follows the direction of the mind or theinclinations of our body? It depends on our desires and our determination to fulfillthese desires. If our job is important to us, we will be strongly inclined to get out ofbed. If our temporary comfort is more attractive than a paycheck, we will tend toignore the alarm clock.If we were born into a home with little discipline and weak commitment todependability, we will have a strong tendency to do whatever comes naturally.However, background cannot be used as an excuse for laziness, because those whowere reared in well-disciplined homes fight the same natural desires. Believe it or not,we are all much the same inside!Thank God that our environment need not control us. The power of the Gospelcan set us free from the conditioning of our home or society. We can choose, by God’sgrace, to change, to refuse to be pressed into the mold of our past.