Useless Chains

Hi! I'm sorry about the lack of posting...I'm gonna go on ahead and use the typical excuse of being busy because of school..which this past week was kind of crazy, but I don't want business to stop me from sharing what God is teaching me.
So picture this:
There's a guy in doctors office who discovers that he has a terminal, incurable disease. The doctor basically tells him to go home and be with family for his last month or so before he passes. So the patient goes home, begins the grieving process, and basically gets ready for his last days...But one morning, a few weeks into coping with the news, he gets a frantic call from his doctor to come into the office right away. The man goes to the hospital and the doctor delivers news that a cure has been formulated, and it has a 100 percent guarantee to take away this man's illness in a matter of minutes.  The doctor is practically elated after telling the terminally ill patient of the cure. But the man simply looks at the doctor, and in a matter-of-fact tone says, "It's okay, I can cure myself!" and walks out.

"A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees. "If you are willing, you can make me clean" Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing" he said. "Be Clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured." -Mark 1:40-42

So the first story I typed up there was made up- I haven't ever heard of anything like that happening in a doctors office..I also don't know of a cure to any disease that works in a matter of minutes..BUT I do know that spiritually, in our walk with the Lord, that scenario is all too present. I know, because I've been there.
We are messy beings. We sin. I once read a prayer that confessed that even when PRAYING we don't have the right intentions with the Lord. We have all fallen short of His glory..And that deserves punishment-and our punishment is to live with our sin and eventually spend eternity separated from God.
In Romans 7, theres a passage that Paul writes about his sin and about his sinful nature and his flesh and the fight between that. He says that what he wants to do he does not do, but he hates what he does. he also talks about how in his INNER being he delights in God's law..but He can't seem to shake all this crap sin out of his fleshly nature.
Newsflash...And I know Paul knew this. We can't heal ourselves. WHich is why the Lord provides Paul with beautiful words right after this statement of Paul's:
"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!" -Romans 7:24-25
I love that Paul calls his body a body of death..Because that parallels not only to my little doctor story above, but also to the story of Christ healing the man with leprosy. As sinners, our body is literally, as Paul says, a body of death. Think about it: Our flesh is sinful in nature...And God is too holy for sin..So therefore because of our sin we are deserving of death, because of the deeds of our sinful nature. And we will continue to sin. Hear me out guys. I have TRIED and TRIED and I"m being completely honest. There is no way for us to heal ourselves. We are broken sinful beings that repeatedly turn our backs on our creator. Imagine if that verse above stopped at "WHo will rescue me from this body of death?" I get chills (and not the good kind) when I think about the reality that, if it were not for Jesus, we would have no hope at all.
Here's the way cool thing about Jesus though! Not only HAS he saved us but he was willing. Just as you look at Jesus healing the leper (along with several other stories in the Bible) Jesus is longing to save us, not only because he knows we are hopeless on our own, but because of his crazy insane love for us. In Isaiah (Forgive me for not knowing the exact passage!!) The Lord tells us that when we need his grace, he is EXALTED! He gets glory when we admit that we need Him. As a body of Christ, we need to let go of our chains we are holding on to and run towards freedom. Do you know how sweet of a deal this is guys? Being saved took no effort of our own. Just acceptance in the gospel and in God's truths. And now suddenly we are allowed free pardon from our sin, HEALING, and most importantly a relationship with Him...A relationship we did not deserve one bit. But understand this: I truly believe that to really be cured you have to allow the healer to do His work. I'm not saying that you shouldn't push yourself and resist temptation, but you can't go around trying to earn a gift already given to you! Let the reality of this drive your affections for the Lord-He takes you just as you are. You do not have to be afraid of failure, because great are the mercies of the Lord! He will not let you fall, and your salvation is secure. Rest in that, sisters and brothers in Christ, because the HEALER is worthy of praise! Don't try and fix yourself, that's just allowing yourself to succumb to useless chains.