Learning To Walk

  Photo (c)Mark Faulkner 2010 

There are no shortages of things in this life that can cause us to stumble.

However, our greatest foe is us—when we decide to make poor choices in our walk.

For all those who are followers of Christ, as a dear friend recently reminded me, we are commanded to, "Walk in the newness of life" (see Romans 6:4).

Much of my struggle is what I tend to choose in my attitudes, actions and words. And no one but me makes me choose poorly.

Our human nature is to usually try to assign blame to someone or something else; "the devil made me do it" or, we blame other people, our surroundings, or our upbringing. It's always easier to try and find a scapegoat than to acknowledge personal responsibility for our faults and poor choices.

So why do we do it?

Perhaps the greatest mystery for me in the Christian experience is that of having a dual nature.

We still reside in a body of flesh, with all of its corrupt thoughts and tendencies. This is referred to as the "old man." And for those who are born again, our regenerated spirit is called the "new man." This is our new spiritual nature, enabled by the renewing power of the Spirit of God. The question is...which man are you feeding? The old corrupt man of the flesh? Or the new regenerated man of the spirit?

Here's the rub: we still have free will.

We always have a choice—in what we say and what we do. We cannot control the actions of others, but we can control how we choose to respond.

Here is a bible passage (1 Corinthians 10:13) that personally convicts me:

"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."

We are solely responsible for our response.

The greatest battlefield is in the mind.

The Apostle James writes:

"Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death."

Lust is desiring or coveting that which we do not have, or cannot have. (See James 4:2)

And lust is conceived in our thoughts. We see something that may appear to us in the moment to be better than what we already have, or we think it would be pleasurable to think about or fantasize about. And this comes from a lack of contentment.

So, knowing that lust is conceived in our thoughts—we "walk in the newness of life" by first taking every impure thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (see 2 Corinthians 10:4-5):

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."

As my friend reminded me, we have to choose daily to walk in the newness of life by taking every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

And it is our choice.

The Apostle Paul writes (see Romans 12:1-2):

"I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

We must take every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ and acknowledge that our fleshly thoughts are corrupt and need to be changed. True transformation comes by confessing that we are wrong in our thinking and that we need to have our minds renewed according to God's Word.

The biblical word repentance literally means to, "Change your mind and think differently afterwards."

If we set our minds on earthly, sensual or material things--lusting over what we do not have or cannot have, we are not walking in the newness of life. And we are not proving or demonstrating God's good, acceptable and perfect will for our lives.

Psalm 119:105 declares:

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light unto my path."

The way we learn to walk in the newness of life is to set our minds daily on what God's Word says, and then choose to walk accordingly—taking every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ.

It's choice we have to make every day, moment by moment.


—God is Love and Love Never Fails.