Round 1

*ding*
There's an inner boxing match going on between God and my sinful nature. I don't want to surrender it all, but I know that it's the only way that I can make it out of this fight intact.

It's hard giving up what you think you want. It's hard denying yourself of something that makes you feel good and comfortable. It's hard to do what you know you should. It's easy to drift away. It's easy to lose focus and discernment. It's easy to blame God and come to Him with demands. It's so easy to fall.

But what a joy we have. Jesus, what a joy You are.

And the fact that it's hard to go against what is easy and natural for us--to be sinful--makes our praises still louder. Have you lost sight of the fact that salvation is such a miracle? Not only that God came down for us, but that He is leading us down a very narrow path. In our natural state, we are sinners. We like ourselves. We like darkness. So going on this path where we are told to be good, think of others, love other over ourselves, love our enemies, and to be broken and exposed by His light is far from where we'd normally be. PRAISE GOD! What a miracle! There are so many sideroads, bridges, paths, streets, runways stemming off, but there is one way. Visualize that for a moment: Millions of little veins coursing from one narrow path. That's the reality of our salvation. As we trek onward, we keep drifting over towards the exits, as we lose sight of God or lose the intensity of our focus, but He honks the horn to wake us up and get us going straight again. There is beauty in the fact that we're even on this path. He is beauty.

So I will deny myself daily and take up my cross to follow Him because I know there is no better life than one spent and lost for God. Please take from me, my life, when I don't have the strength to give it away to you, Jesus (Take My Life- Third Day).