With only about 8 days left on the World Race, I am writing to everyone my final blog as a Racer. The time has flown by and I cannot believe that this journey is coming to an end. God has done some great things over the past 9 months and I would do him an injustice to try and sum them all up into one blog (or any for that matter). I hope that I will get the chance to tell all of you face to face about our amazing God. Until then, I am going to share with y’all a journal entry that I wrote just this morning as I reflected on the past week. I’m going to be honest, I’m going to tell you how it is, and I hope that if you are reading this and relate you can find hope in a powerful God that extends endless grace.
5/25/19
The world has a lot to offer a young man—fun, pleasure, people, experience, success, beauty…But it also takes a lot in return. It’s as if when we are born we open up an account with the world. It gives us many benefits but pencils us in for an enormous debt. We can never pay off this debt. When Jesus offers to cover us and we accept, the world will hate us for it. It will hate us because the world itself cannot pay. Now that we are free from the world, and God has called us out of it, we are instructed to disregard the former ways in which we once walked. This means that we no longer love sin, pleasure, and worldly desires, but instead all of our love is devoted solely to God. “Do not love the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). God has given us his love, poured it into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5), therefore we have no excuse for diverting our love away from him. I’m writing this because this past week I was flooded with temptation and desire to live my old lifestyle. I missed it, longed for it. To go out and get drunk, to chase after girls, smoke some weed, party, just go all out again. It was a strong desire. Nothing in me wanted to love God. It scared me to death. It was the first time in a long time that I had felt this way. That old person, that beast of sin, he’s still there. He’s present, waiting for a chance. He is pure evil, rebellion to God. He is the one that is in the world and loves the world, he is the one that makes my flesh rage against my God. Though all this is true, my hope is still set in Christ. For while I was wasting away he rescued me, brought me into his light, and loved me through it all. Now, I have overcome the evil one, “for he who is in [me] is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Therefore, the Spirit of the Living God dwells in me, and with Christ as my advocate and intercessor I wage war on this person—with weapons not of flesh and blood but of the power of God himself. Nothing can stand against the King of kings and the Lord of lords for to Him belongs victory and power and glory. I will boast in my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest upon me. When I am my weakest, then I am the strongest. So, I have come to understand the importance of daily death. Each morning that I wake up the choice is mine: live to die or die to live. God’s call to life is the call to put to death the beast in me. Who will I worship?
There are always going to be battles, but God has won the war. While we were dead in our sins, He came to this earth, lived a sinless life, was beaten and crucified on a cross, buried in a tomb, and rose from the dead three days later. To anyone who will repent of their sins and follow Jesus, He offers eternal life and relationship with God himself. If anyone who has read this wants to talk about it, feel free to message me on a social media or give me a call. God bless you all and to Him alone be all the glory.
