Memory Monday: Romans 8:9

The verse card did it!

He testified concerning her: "I have found Joanne a woman after my own heart; she will do everything I want her to do." Acts 13:22

This week I'm going to learn Romans 8:9 (and I'm putting it in the first person):

I, however, am controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit...

Something about having it in the first person feels like power to me. When confronted with temptation or the choice to sin, I want to remember that "I, however, am controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit!"

It feels assertive and strong and certain. 

I was reading Hinds' Feet on High Places the other day (finished it again last week and am rereading the sequel) and came across this. Much Afraid's enemies have been sent to turn her back from the journey to the High Places.

"But they could not conceal from themselves that force might prove impossible, as apparently she had put herself under the protection of the Great Shepherd. Some means, then, would have to be found to beguile her into leaving him or her own free will."

The word "beguile" just jumped off the page at me. Because Satan knows how to package sin in such a way as to make it appealing, desirable, almost lovely at times. He tries to woo us into sin, playing our emotions. He appeals to our sinful nature in such a way that we are drawn to what his offering, lured away. Like Much Afraid's enemies, he knows we are under the protection of the Shepherd, and so must beguile us to leaving of our own free will.

Scary, isn't it?

So when he appeals to the sinful nature, packaging sin in such a way that we almost long for it, we can instead respond to sin with certainty and resoluteness--

I, however, am controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit!

 

Are you memorizing Scripture? I urge you to do so.
What are you learning this week?

 

Comments

[Liz]

I got a copy of Hinds' Feet on High Places from Paperbackswap and have been reading it over the weekend. What a great story. Simple but chock full of truth. Someone had recommended the book to me 4 1/2 years ago, and I'm finally reading it.

My memory verse for the week is Psalm 119:71, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes."

[ana]

My verse this week is Proverbs 3:5
"Trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding."

I love putting the verses into first person. I think they stay with me more when I do that.

[Lisa notes...]

I also love how you put that into first person. Makes it even more powerful and meaningful. I'll have to try that myself.

I'm learning Proverbs 30:8-9 this week, trying to be satisfied with the perfect amount of trials and blessings that God sends my way...