Oh my goodness. I forgot to post this for Monday’s email. Today, let’s finish up chapter #2 of Grace in the Dark by looking at reasons why, as Spirit-filled Christians, we can still stumble…
Our next source of unwanted darkness that may cause us to struggle in our personal lives is our inheritance of generational tendencies – bondages – handed down to us through our families. This may include a single incident in an immediate family, but more likely these behaviors are a long line of issues that seem to permeate from great-grandparents, to grandparents, to parents, to us. Just like eye color, hair type, and facial features passed onto us, the hooks of the enemy and the environments from those who have lived before us can be woven into our personalities without any choice on our part.
Does my brother exhibit the same type of anger we see our father exhibit? Does my sister seem to sabotage her relationships just like Aunt Betty did? Does my child’s moodiness, reflect my own propensity to give place to emotions? The Scriptures tell us that generational hand-me-downs are not something to be ignored and they certainly play a part in some degree to our own plight.[i]
How often I swore I would not let pride rule my life as I watched my own dad’s struggle with it. However, it did. I also seemed to inherit a great batch of insecurity that preceded the pride just like him, too. I had no idea about his insecurities until he let me peruse an old diary of his from high school. Each page of this old leather-bound book journaled my dad’s deep insecurity. Even as you read this, I am sure you are rehearsing your own familial tendencies that are now yours to some degree. Right?
It doesn’t have to be a major trauma we may experience for us to allow enemy strongholds in our soul. I am sure my own fourteen-year bout with bulimia arose from a seemingly innocuous event from with my third-grade class in elementary school.
I, along with my friends, was called by the teacher for the early morning line-up after a recess time. I trotted up with everyone to stand on the yellow marker, but some boys in my class began to chase one of my best friends around the line-up. My friend was pretty, petite, and with long blond hair. At the time, I was the tallest and chunkiest girl in my class with a mass of curly hair that went every which way! As I watched my friend being pursued by the boys, I entertained a whisper from the enemy that my appearance was everything and to be pretty and desirable was an indication of worth. This tiny wound to may soul had had far-reaching implications for my life!
As Paul wrote in Romans 7, our working harder and trying to do better to end our personal struggles often ends in frustrated guilt. Sin, unhealed wounds, and generational hand-me-downs may be at work in us and we wonder and question God why we can’t seem to stop these unwanted behaviors, addictions, and reactions. Oh, how we need His grace in the dark! His grace to not only save us, but to heal and deliver us – this is the power of the gospel of Jesus.
We read of Paul’s struggles that he recorded in Romans 7, however it is the very last verse of this chapter where we see the light at the end of our seemingly endless tunnel of personal darkness. Paul directly takes us into the first steps of God’s infinite grace for our finding freedom in Romans 8:1. Remember, at the time of Paul’s writings, there we no chapter and verse numberings or separations:
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Romans 7:24-25, 8:1
This is the beginning of His much-needed grace in the dark of our complexity. This is the platform of grace we stand upon to launch us from bondage into freedom. This is God’s lavish and gracious provision for us to take a step forward, holding His hand tightly as He walks us out of our soul’s struggles. Are you ready to take a leap forward onto the platform of His amazing grace?
[i] Exodus 34:7, Numbers 14:18