Devotion
" So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."
There he was, padded mallet gripped firmly in hand, eyes fixed unblinking on five round holes where devilish creatures lurked. There was a moment of silence and then the bell rang. The first mole to pop its obnoxious head out of its hole received the formidable wrath of a frantic six-year-old. The mole dropped back into its hole as the boy’s eyes scanned back and forth from hole to hole. Another one arose and received a swift walloping, but the next one came more quickly.
The third mole only received a glancing blow as the mallet careened to the left to hit the fourth which was coming up before the third had even been knocked back down. Faster and faster the moles kept popping up and the boy kept swinging. At first every mole was hit, but as the game continued the boy began to grow weary and the moles became emboldened. They rose with ever increasing speed looking upon the boy with their mocking smile until the mallet could finally reach their head, but for every mole knocked down two more would rise. Finally, the bell rang, all the moles descended back into their holes eagerly awaiting their next opportunity to rise again.
Sometimes, it can feel like our struggle with sin is like a spiritual game of whack-a-mole. Every time temptation rises we strive to knock it down, but just as soon as one goes away, another pops up in its place. Paul describes our struggle with sin as a war between our mind which longs to serve god and our flesh which serves the law of sin. Fighting sin by ourselves is a losing battle. We will wear ourselves out swinging the mallet as the sins keep popping up faster than we can knock them down. At some point we just give up the fight.
If you have given up the fight against the sin in your life, there is reason to hope. Listen to what Paul cries out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25). When we put our faith in Jesus, He saves us from our sin. We are forgiven and justified before God so that our sins no longer count against us. God also begins the work of sanctification in the Holy Spirit helping us to grow in righteousness and overcome the sin in our daily lives.
God has a different plan for us to fight sin than trying to knock it out of our lives with our own strength. It is a daily process of surrendering our lives to Jesus and following Him. If you are caught in a spiritual game of whack-a-mole with your sins, set down your mallet, pick up your cross and follow Jesus.