Good Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day. A fresh new start. A new day to rise and run into the safety and security of the Arms of Jesus.

A new day to pour out all of your shortcomings.

A new day to tell Him the struggles and sin tendencies that make you feel weak.

A new day to let Him in on what feels heavy and almost unbearable.

A new day to release your fears and doubts and disappointments.

A new day to ask Him for Holy Help!

If there is anything that keeps showing up in your life again and again as a weakness of yours,

If you have an unhealthy habit,

If you have an old struggle you thought you were healed from, but now it’s back…

If you struggle with anything like that, then you know what it feels like to feel defeated and frustrated with your own flesh.

You know what it feels like to want so badly to do one thing, but instead do the other.

Or sometimes it’s our own “slow growth” . We feel like we should be stronger in our faith by now. That certain things should have been worked out of our hearts, but then they come back up when we are tested.

This is the struggle that is common to every believer. The struggle between the flesh suit that we live in and our new Spirit that is alive unto Christ.

When you accepted Christ, the old man passed away and you became a brand new creation. Immediately, you were a brand new Spirit now alive and you also became a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit of God Himself!

And yet there is still a sanctification process of becoming more and more like the Spirit that lives inside of us and less and less like the human flesh we are that can so quickly become entangled in sin and give in to old patterns and struggles.

These struggles can literally be anything from negative thinking to doubts to struggling to read the Bible to addictions to a short temper to feeling weak in the faith to living with constant fears to unhealthy coping skills to blatant sins that we thought were dealt with, but then show back up.

And of course that little list is just the tip of the iceberg… your fleshly struggle could be something else.

The point is we all struggle with something and most of us struggle with a few “things” that remind us that we are still planted in the earth in a weak body that sometimes fails.

BUT there is beautiful news. We don’t have to stay there.

Some of the most dangerous thinking is, “Well thats just how I am, and I will always struggle with ________”

No, that’s deception trying to keep you captive in your struggle.

You are free and whom the son sets free is free indeed.

You are a brand new creation.

You also have the empowering grace of God poured out into you to empower and enable you to live free and healed and whole and restored and free from old patterns.

And the Lord said that in our weakness( that could be anything that we struggle to overcome), He is strong!

He also promised to trade loads with us! Our heavy one for His little, light one.

And a great encouragement to me when I get frustrated with things that pop back up that I believed I was done battling in my flesh, is the testimony of PAUL.

A man whose entire life was spent serving the Lord with zeal and fervor. A man who grew up according to the law and followed each command. He was an enforcer of the law of God and was quick to persecute Christians until Jesus met with him personally and radically converted him. After that He continued to zealously serve the Lord, but now with the fullness of the gospel and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He preached and healed and planted churches. He suffered persecution and preached on anyway!

Here is his testimony in three verses!

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
II Corinthians 12:7‭-‬9

1. Notice….. he struggled.

2. Notice …..he pleaded and prayed for the Lord to remove it.

3. And then…..the Lord answered Him by reminding him to just lean into the Lord because the strength of Jesus is sufficient for us!

And Paul, the man so close to Jesus that even handkerchiefs that he touched had power to heal, this Paul still battled with his flesh.

He had something: a struggle, a sin, an unhealthy pattern, maybe an illness or another weakness. Something that tormented him and he tried again and again to overcome. He finally, gave in and gave it to the Lord Jesus.

And that will be our model too. When you have labored on your own and done everything you can, just turn and bravely say, “Here God.”

You can call on the Holy Spirit that is fully alive on the inside of you to help you in your hour of need.

And even if you’ve had a long history with your struggle, today is a brand new day in Christ Jesus. You’ve never lived today before.

Today is the day that the Lord has made and His mercies are brand new every morning.

So, spend some time getting real with Him and inviting Him in afresh and again to help you to do the things your Spirit so desires to get right and to avoid the very things that you know are not for you anymore!

Dear Heavenly Father,

We hope in You alone! You are the One that we live for. You are the One that makes all things new. Lord, I bring before You my struggles. You know my heart and you know what so easily trips me up. I bring it to You today and ask that Your power come and teach me to walk new and free once again. Lord, in myself I am weak. In You, I am strong. Change my thought patterns and bring every part of my life under submission to Your authority. I trust You as my Lord. And I desire to live completely and fully for You with no parts held back. Lord, you have my all. My whole heart and my full submission to serving You and Your people.

In Jesus’s name,

Amen.