January 8 - Who Will Rescue Me?

Today's Reading:
1 Samuel 12:1-13:23
Romans 7:14-8:8
Psalm 78:1-8
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Focus Verses: 
Romans 7:21-24a
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Insight:
The Law of Moses was very good at articulating what was right and wrong, but it was powerless to change people. It defined sin and served as an external restraint, but it could not transform sinners into saints. The Law even inspired people to acknowledge and desire what was right, but it could not renovate their hearts and minds, enabling them to do it.

Through Christ we now have access to the transforming grace of God. Instead of the weak and unredemptive Law, we now have the saving and renewing power of the Holy Spirit who indwells the mortal bodies of those who have placed their faith in Christ (Romans 8).

Response and Action:
I recognize that I need more than rules and more than an understanding of right and wrong. I need transformation. I need to be saved and renewed by Christ. I need the saving grace of God and the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. Whenever I see a contradiction between the things I want to do and things I find myself doing, I will look to God, take hold of the gracious strength he offers through Christ, and seek to do what is right by the power of his Spirit.

O God, thank you for the freedom from sin you make available to me through your grace in Christ. Thank you for the saving and transforming power of your Holy Spirit. Renovate my heart and mind. Help me to want what you want. Make me a person who delights in your will, and walks in your ways, to the glory of your name. Through Christ, I pray. Amen.

Spiritual Formation Verses:  
Ezekiel 36:26-27 
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Resources:
Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ
by Dallas Willard