W. Kent Levis
While praying this morning, I was led to consider why my sin nature keeps popping to the surface in my life. I suspect that I am not much different than most of God’s people. I was led to the passage in the bible where Jesus turns to the invalid at the Sheep Gate and asked him “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6). Then God asked me the same question. I was born with my sin nature. It has been with me all my life. I have become comfortable with it. In fact it leads me to temptations that bring me physical pleasure. To be completely cleansed of my sin nature would be like excising a part of my body, no matter how ugly, that has been part of me since birth. If I can see it as a cancer rather than a part of me, then the removal would be welcome. But I realize that God’s answer is not to rid me of my sin nature, for He has given us free will in the world. Rather I must come to Him and to allow Him to control my sin nature, much like a doctor in some cases controls a cancer rather than remove it. God can and will subdue my sin nature, if I am willing, and ask Him to do so. But first I must decide that I don’t want that old familiar part of me to influence my actions any longer. I must answer God and say, “yes, I want to be healed”.
