The Life-Long Struggle

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:

The very moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.  And so on, all day.

For years now I have known that one of the keys to the Christian life is “daily exposure to the Word of God”.

And for as many years, it has continued to be a struggle.  Many mornings—it happened again today—I wake up and would much rather tackle my “to do” list than to spend time with God and his Word.   Galatians 5:17 describes my on-going, life-long experience:

The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.  These two are in opposition to one another.

I look forward to the day when I also will experience the truth of 1 John 3:2…

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Until then, I take my marching orders from 1 John 3:3…

Everyone who has this hope [ie, the hope of being transformed fully into the image of Christ] fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

I engage in this struggle, sobered by it’s tenacity in my sinful heart within, yet hopeful in the power of the Holy Spirit, who—praise God!—also lives within:

I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. (Colossians 1:29)