Resist to the point of shedding your blood

Just like all men I too get tempted. I wish that I could be completely and totally free from all temptations/sins (this we can only keep hope for when Jesus returns).

The other day while I was feasting I was lead to this verse in Hebrews:

Heb 12:4 NIV In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

 

This was an eye opener for me. As I had to ask myself do I always resist temptations? The answer is no. Then I had to ask, if I do sin, how much more could I have fought to remain pure or free from sin? From reading Heb_12:4 we see that some (primarily me) have not fought/resisted temptation/sin hard enough. I often say "it's just too hard, I am not strong enough to resist." then... I sin. This is showing just how weak my flesh is (or truly how strong the lust of the flesh can be). We should be disciplined enough to resist even to the point of shedding our own blood.

I then was reminded of Jesus, and when sweated blood.

Luk 22:42-45 NKJV  saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."  (43)  Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.  (44)  And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  (45)  When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.

Though we are not told he was being "tempted" we can clearly see that His flesh was putting up one "hell" of a fight. So often my flesh seems to put of a fight to strengthen me to sin (Gal_5:16-17). We are even told in Rom_13:14 to put on Jesus, and make no room for our flesh to fulfill its lust. So when we see Jesus (in prayer) bringing His body into subjection/discipline (1Co_9:27) and resisting what His flesh wanted to do even to the "point of shedding blood" we should be encouraged and lifted up to see such an example of victory. Looking to Jesus here, we see just how to resist even to the point of blood.

I also want to take a quick look at what Jesus was doing the whole time. Please take a look again at Luk_22:42-45. We see that He went to the Father in prayer. So many times I find that when my flesh/sin/temptations spring there little ugly heads up "prayer" is that last place I want to go. But we find that there in prayer we can be and are strengthen to endure to the point of blood... one last look at His prayer. Notice how even after He started praying He was in "agony?" This did not cause Him to stop praying, no it drove Him to pray even more earnestly!

We have seen that though we are tempted we must not just sit there, and take it. Nor should we stand there and just try to say "no" I will not sin. We have seen that we are to be active in our fight against it. That we are to resist to the point of blood.

Every night I read the bible to my son. Here recently I have had the desire to read Judges to him. It is there in those times of feasting that I often hear their Father speak to me too.  Well the other night we read Judges 3, and this jumped out at me.

Jdg 3:1-2 NIV These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (2) (He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had pervious battle experience.)

And again from the Message version.

Jdg 3:1-2 MSG  These are the nations that GOD left there, using them to test the Israelites who had no experience in the Canaanite wars.  (2)  He did it to train the descendants of Israel, the ones who had no battle experience, in the art of war.

As I briefly mentioned above in Galatians 5:16-17 our flesh and Sprit war against each other. We also know that our enemy wars against us too. So when I read this verse it hit close to home with me. I thought it a wonderful thing to see that our Father wants to, and will teach us the art of warfare in our fight against sin/temptations. But He goes about it a bit differently then I would expect. I often have been taught in a class room setting. I would first learned the task, then went outside to apply hands on training, then maybe, just maybe I might get to use it in real life.  But our God has allowed us our enemy to remain to teach us the art of war. What we get is the "in your face, real life" fight as our instruction/hands on application..... But this should not get us down, or discourage us. No it should lift us up and encourage us. For during those time our Jesus is ever close to us. For it is Him who is our strength. We saw in Luke that it was an angle that strengthen Jesus, how much more is our strength when it is the Holy Spirit Himself who is with us?

Heb 13:8 NKJV  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Seeing that Jesus is the same always we know that just as He delivered the enemies of God's people into their hands, He will deliver our enemies into our hands. Let this be a hope to us.

Knowing this and seeing how He fought for God's people, leads us to ask how are we to fight?

Eph 6:12 NKJV  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Again in the Message version

Eph 6:12 MSG  This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.

Then if our enemy is not of flesh and blood then how do we war?

2Co 10:3-4 NKJV  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  (4)  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,

This brings us back to our original look at resisting to the point of blood. Our enemy is the devil. It is through him that our flesh was tempted into becoming fallen. Now we have a flesh that desires the ungodly things. It wars against the Spirit. We have tongue that is set on fire by hell (Jas_3:6). It seems that every where we turn there is a fight. Oh how that can get discouraging!!!! But let us not lose hope. Let us turn our eyes to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith! Let us begin to live in the Spirit so that we may remain strong in the fight of our lives. Let us turn to Jesus so that we may be taught the art of our warfare.

Psa 144:1-2 NKJV  A Psalm of David. Blessed be the LORD my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle— (2)  My lovingkindness and my fortress, My high tower and my deliverer, My shield and the One in whom I take refuge, Who subdues my people under me.

Again in the Message version.

Psa 144:1-2 MSG  A David psalm. Blessed be GOD, my mountain, who trains me to fight fair and well.  (2)  He's the bedrock on which I stand, the castle in which I live, my rescuing knight, The high crag where I run for dear life, while he lays my enemies low.

WOW!!! Not only will Jesus teach us how to fight against sin, He is our strength, our hope, our source of life, and our victor who destroys our enemies!!!

In the example that Jesus showed us in Luke, we saw that He turned to the Father in prayer, so we too must turn to Jesus in prayer. He must be the one in whom we "run for dear life" so that He may "lay my enemies low."

Men, brother! I know more than anyone just how hard it is to remain pure and free from sin. This fight against sin/temptation is an ongoing battle in my life. That’s is why I find such strength in His word when I read that He will teach me how to fight, knowing that if I remain in Him He will deliver all my enemies into my hands. Let me encourage you to begin obey this:

1Th 5:17 NKJV  pray without ceasing,

Learn to live in prayer, learn to run to Jesus in prayer, learn how fight in prayer! Follow the example Jesus has showed us and find a new strength to fight against sin/temptations to the point of shedding your blood.

Now there are times (for me all to often) that we do and will sin. And we know that when we sin we must go and seek forgives. Think about this for a minute..... What enables us to be forgiven of all our sins? Jesus' finished work on the cross!

Php 2:8 NKJV  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

We know that our payment for sin comes only through the blood Jesus shed for us. So when we sin, not having resisted to the point of blood, then go back to the Father to seek forgiveness, what are we doing? We (mainly I) are requesting again, and again the use of Jesus' blood to cover where we could not resist (in the flesh) a passing pleasure.

Oh what grace we truly have in Jesus!!! For He knows (and Knew) that we so desperately needed Him and His finished work on the cross. It was in the Fathers love that He sent Jesus for us. It was in Jesus' love that He was obedient even to the point of death. This was all done so that we might have life (free life) in Jesus. This was done so that we might be reconciled back to the Father, and be one with Him as Jesus is.

Let today be the day that we begin to stand strong in Jesus, having a new hope and vigor to remain pure. That we will fight against sin/temptations with all that we have. When it gets tough, and we begin to feel "agony" that we would press in even harder to Jesus. Having done all we could to stand (Eph_6:13) and be obedient to Jesus (out of love) even to the point of shedding our blood, even to point of death.