What We Live For

...who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 1 Peter 2:24

Our Lord Jesus gave us the desire and ability to live for righteousness. What does the world train and call us to live for? You know already of course: attention and fame, money and luxury, power and gain, sex and sexuality, and all other means of catering to the fallen desires of the flesh. "Be yourself," the world commands us. 

Well, the Holy Spirit gave me a good look at the old me one day, and I didn't want to be him. 

Everyone who believes in our Lord Jesus has come to face the old thing that was born on this earth demanding its own way. The selfishness of the born once was tough to face, and we are all glad, I think, that we did not have to face him or her alone. That old thing still demands attention with its lusts too often, even after the second birth. Peter tells us that our Lord has cleared the way for us to live in righteousness by submitting to the stripes of the whip. 

The old flesh that I could not conquer alone was healed in a way that I cannot explain; guess I am wholly inadequate to save myself. Praise God for my weakness! 

Bucky