Fighting for Peace

Here is a link to the book by John Owen referenced below. It is not an easy read partly because it was written in the 1600’s, but it is definitely worth reading. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/owen/mort

“…the life and vigour, and comfort our spiritual life depend much on our mortification of sin.”

-John Owen ch 4 of, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers

True sorrow over sin will lead to repentance, and the guilt and sorrow will be short, but the joy and comfort in the work of Christ is profound and lasting. Though more sorrow, guilt, and then again repentance will come, our joy and comfort in Christ can be ever increasing. Speaking of the comfort from God, John Owen says,

“The use of means for the obtaining of the peace is ours; the bestowing of it is God’s prerogative.”

We are to be actively fighting our sin with the power given to us by the Holy Spirit and by the understanding we have been given of God’s word. While studying the mortification of sin, the following question repeatedly comes to mind. How does this constant battle with sin fit with the peace and rest in God? It seems that the constant battle and rest go together, and that you can’t have one without the other.

Desires

As a result of reading Galatians and the first three chapters of John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, I have written some things that came to mind. Actually as I reread what I wrote, I remember pieces of Philippians and much of John Piper’s writing. Keep in mind this has not yet been particularly well thought out.

We can rejoice in God’s fulfillment of our comforts and respond with gratitude, and we can rejoice amid sorrow because it is allowed by God and can be used to glorify him. No circumstance can keep us from seeking him and enjoying him. We are not commanded to be happy but to rejoice – to praise him, and we have plenty of reason to do that. With God as our greatest desires, other desires when left unfulfilled, do (should not) not consume us or even hinder our complete passion for God. God gives us the desires of our hearts, but he does not always fulfill the desires of our bodies for the sake of our hearts. I am not talking about desires of our sinful nature (“the flesh”) but simply our desires for comfort. Even our amoral desires may have to be tempered at times to allow complete focus on our new heart’s desire to glorify God and enjoy him.

Something New

I have set this up since some things are just too long and maybe a little boring for Facebook. I don't want to fill up the news feed with my random thoughts, so I'll give this a try. With this I'll feel no pressure to keep things brief or even interesting to anyone else. If by some chance you find something I write to be interesting or even helpful, then this has been a better idea than just a folder full of Word documents saved to my computer or something handwritten in a notebook.