"Daily Devotional Day 69

"A man without self-control is like a city broken down and without walls" ( proverbs 25:28). In order to succeed spiritually, you must decrease this natural strength, while our spiritual strength is allowed to increase. We remain defenseless as a city without walls unless we have this self-control.

Take for example, if we are driving and we look in our rearview mirror and see a huge truck with big tires on our bumper trying to pressure us to go faster. We are moved by fear to go faster and yet know inside it is against the law. Fear is a very powerful force. You sense the compulsion to act. We go beyond the speed limit compulsively without heeding the influence of the Holy Spirit. We lose contact immediately with His voice due to these reactions. In the end we either kill ourselves or someone else. What happened? The Holy Spirit got out of the car. It was against His nature to break the law.

We all know down deep our natural strength is not a match for Satan and this life's temptation. Death is the only way out of this life. How has the Lord provided this death blow to our natural strength and provided a way for it to decrease? How do we restore His voice inside of us?

Salvation includes all that is necessary to live a spiritual life. It stands to reason, if the voice of God was lost through the fall of Adam by turning from God and trusting in Adam's natural strength, then a turning away from this natural strength and return to God will restore His voice. In our salvation we turn from not only sin, but this natural strength dominating us and get reconnected inside to the Holy Spirit through faith. We receive the initial touch of His presence on our lives from the inside out by believing in Christ by faith. While our transformation into Christ's likeness takes time, bringing this natural strength into harmony is paramount to our success in our Christian walk.

The cross is the instrument of death used to crucify our natural man. It needs to be applied daily. Christ said, "Pick up your cross daily, deny self and follow me". How do we apply the cross to our lives? How do we live with our natural man and yet be controlled by our spirit influenced by the Holy Spirit?

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you when fear is motivating your reactions. Ask Him to empower you from the inside out to surrender and embrace the cross. Ask Him to help you decrease, so that He may increase.