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Imagine yourself overcoming a terrible addiction. An immense rush of joy and victoriousness fills your heart as you are finally free from the addiction's vicious enslavement of your mind, brutal damage to your body, and severe hindrances to your relationship with God. With this overwhelming positivity and fresh memories of your nightmarish experience, you have no issue vowing never to return to your former ways. However, as the emotional high of your emancipation wanes, the looming threat of relapse begins to grow as fleshly promises of familiarity and carnal pleasure entice you to return to your former chains.
Such a scenario resembles the situation the Israelites found themselves in under Moses' leadership. In Exodus 14, the Lord miraculously delivered them from 400 years of Egyptian slavery involving unspeakable abuse and unending misery. Their emancipation filled them with unspeakable gratitude to God that overflowed into joyous worship, as Exodus 15:1-21 record. Furthermore, their deliverance enabled them to pursue His purpose for them, which was to conquer and inhabit the fruitful land He promised them. However, this gratitude and optimism soon turned to resentment and faithlessness in 16:1-3 when their food supplies were depleted. Despite having seen God perform several miracles to protect and provide for them, they faithlessly longed to return to Egypt for its plentiful culinary pleasures. Thus, despite the great joy, complete freedom, and God-given purpose they received from their liberation, circumstances and carnal lusts blinded the Israelites to these life-changing blessings and tempted them to rebelliously return to Egypt.
Unfortunately, many Christians today parallel these illustrations with a similar return to spiritual bondage. Although Ephesians 4:22-23 call us to abandon our former life in the flesh and allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds, most of us do the opposite. Instead, we follow the carnal enticements of our old lives and repeatedly fall back into slavery under our Egypt: the flesh. Though doing so brings temporary pleasure, these regressions greatly damage our relationship with God and brutally rob us of the victorious and fruitful life He desires for us. Thus, through doing this, we are as recovering addicts jumping back head-first into the bondage we were freed from.
Fortunately, the Scriptures graciously reveal the ways we can victoriously overcome the temptations to return to our self-life. First, we must learn to trust God in all circumstances and decisions. When we disregard Proverbs 3:5 and rely on our understanding in these situations, we open ourselves to the flesh's destructive influence. Guarding our hearts from it requires wholeheartedly placing our trust in God's perfect wisdom and always choosing it above our own. Another critical step is daily denying self. Titus 2:12 notes how we are not to embrace, but to completely renounce our worldly lusts and ungodly behaviors. Doing so is only possible through obeying Christ in Matthew 16:24 and daily taking up our cross, choosing to disassociate ourselves from our enslaved lives in the flesh. One other critical step is to daily put on the whole armor of God. As Satan also tempts us to fall back into our fleshly chains, we must vigilantly guard ourselves against his vicious attacks. However, Ephesians 6:10-18 reveal that such victory can only be won through prayer, a strong faith in God, and a firm stance in the His truth, righteousness, and peace. Thus, overcoming our self-life's temptations requires a life rooted in faith, self-denial, and spiritual alertness.
Like the former addict and the Israelites, our reception of Christ's salvation graciously frees us to live a new life of victory, joy, and God-given purpose. However, the carnal pleasures of our Egypt, the flesh, unceasingly tempt us to foolishly squander this new life and return to the destructive bondage of our lusts and habitual sins. Fortunately, we can protect our Christ-won freedom from these brutal chains of carnality through daily trusting God wholeheartedly, taking up our cross, and putting on His armor.
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