Boys

This is going to be thought dump, but I want to put something out there.

I think every guy that I have talked to wrestles with something called lust. I don't know the depth of the wrestling- we don't really talk about it. The silence sometimes leads me to doubt that there are many who struggle with it, even though I know others do.

It's the kind of thing that leads you to doubt your own salvation- it's a reality check. You say- I can't keep going on sinning all the time if I've been given new life. "What kind of new life is that?" we ask.

I think that many of us want to be men of God who don't seem to have this struggle. "Men of God" and "struggles" don't usually fit into the same sentence in our minds. Whomever we marry- we hope to be fully committed and faithful them, without exception. But when we're messing up even before that point, we can't help but to constantly think about how unprepared and how big of failures we are. To us, we're letting down God, our spouses, and ourselves, all at the same time, over and over.

When we ask for forgiveness, we only feel like it covers us temporarily, until we mess up again. Then we become dull to the whole cycle, as it repeats itself. It can lead us to the brink of the the abyss. Don't slip any further, it's the point of no return.

Admittedly, I have struggled through this.

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HOWEVER,

"Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do" Romans 8:12

Concisely put, Christians are no longer bound by the flesh, but rather the new Spirit. However, they can still act like they still are. Non-Christians are simply bound by flesh and do not have the ability to disobey it.

You see, we're all the same... but some are also not. We can both go down a way that leads to death. However... as those who have been bought by Christ, we have a choice for a path that leads to life. Now and forever.
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What?

The funny thing is, once you realize that you have been permanently covered (as opposed to temporarily covered), you can start to find yourself leading a life of freedom that ends up naturally wanting to choose the path to life. This road looks brighter and more appealing than it did before. The other road still exists and can be travelled on... but it's appeal has waned.. it's power squelched.

Listen, we were never meant to achieve perfection in it of ourselves. That will never happen. However, we were given a new way to receive it through Jesus. In this way, he asks us to walk in a close and intimate relationship with him, walking out into the good things he has planned for us.

We must remind ourselves of the things we have forgotten.

Our new lives are lived simply through reminders. Simply through faith in truths. This is only able to be received, not bought... but given, and never earned. It is something that can only be too-good-to-be-true, unless it is actually true.

Boys will be boys... but then some will become men, through faith.
I repeat, through faith.