No one is exempt from conflict. It presents itself moment by moment. One of the more stronger ones is the contest between the flesh and the spirit. I speak not of a matter of doing what's right vs. what's wrong. Rather I address the war of aging.
II Corinthians 4:16 presents one of man's greatest divides; outer man decaying vs. inner man getting newer day by day. Note: this is simultaneous; not either/or. Both are a common part of our daily routine. The Outer vs. the Inner is the fiercest of all competition.
Count on it; we will go 15 rounds. There is no need to assume exemption. And...the contest will be inescapably stormy.
The flesh ages while the spirit invigorates. Fact. One will tend to decline. The other is to move onward and upward. Fact. Both want to run the show. Fact.
This truth should/could/must serve as Church Alert. Every generation will fight the aging process; locking down the flesh's preferences and comforts. It is no easy contest to release ourselves from the flesh soaked in fear and into the flotational promises of spirit wonder. The flesh will selfishly preserve while the spirit will be inclined to explore.
Some who are engaged in what is known as the Restoration Movement have very strongly shifted into the Preservation Movement having forgotten our forefathers seemed more engaged in the Exploration Movement. There is a difference. One slant will kill. The fruit will be shrinking churches. The other will give life resulting in growth; both inwardly and numerically.
There are many wonderful biblical blessings which have flowed from our past. We have learned how to praise, how to connect, and how to serve. Yet God is most clear, that He has things awaiting in the storehouse of blessings that man hasn't even thought about yet (I Cor. 2:9). Sometimes when these blessings are discovered, we find that we are faced with a solemn decision. Are we to remain unmovable from what we attained in the past are shall we grow into the newness He seems to adamantly present?
This is no easy task. On the contrary, it is deeply sobering. Of all of the conflict management one faces, whether, family-job-or-profession, this one is major because it separates whether one lives dead to the promises of God or lives alive to His radiant and ungraspable creativity .
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