“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”—this famous observation is something we can all relate to. It is one of the deep frustrations of the Christian life that although our sins are forgiven and our minds are renewed by Christ, we nevertheless must struggle daily against the sinful impulses of our “old selves.”

In the “Evening” section of today’s Morning and Evening devotional, Charles Spurgeon fixes on this apparent contradiction between sin and sanctification. But he sees it as a reason not to despair, but to give thanks to God:

Paradoxes abound in Christian experience, and here is one–the spouse [in Song of Solomon 5:2] was asleep, and yet she was awake. He only can read the believers riddle who has ploughed with the heifer of his experience. The two points in this evenings text are–a mournful sleepiness and a hopeful wakefulness…. When our renewed heart struggles against our natural heaviness, we should be grateful to sovereign grace for keeping a little vitality within the body of this death. Jesus will hear our hearts, will help our hearts, will visit our hearts; for the voice of the wakeful heart is really the voice of our Beloved, saying, Open to me. Holy zeal will surely unbar the door.

If you’re a Christian, you have certainly experienced the ongoing war between the “mournful sleepiness” of your sinful nature and the “hopeful wakefulnesss” of your new life in Christ. How do you understand the struggle between these two realities of your spiritual life?

By: Andy. This entry was posted on Friday, September 24th, 2010 at 8:34 am and is filed under Devotional, sin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.