WHAT REIGNS?

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.  Romans 6:12

To reign is to prevail.  To reign is to rule.  To reign is to have ultimate power.

Sin can reign but only with my permission.  Even though Christ died for it, and I have the choice, and the power granted to me by the Holy Spirit to walk in resurrection life, I can still choose sin and allow it to gain the throne of my life. I think of the many things I have said about my life, or my environment, over the years.

 

• Confusion reigns here.
• Depression reigns here.
• Anger reigns here.
• Passivity reigns here.

 

I knew these things to be true; each at different times and I admitted it in utter frustration.  The air reeked of the fruits of unrighteousness and what I was really saying was that God was not in charge on that day.  Sin reigned.  Sin prevailed but only because it was allowed to.

Paul spells the truth about sin plainly.  It has its passion because of the energy of the prince of the power of the air behind it.  He promotes it, sugar coats it, breathes it, stirs up our emotions to want it, and the lure is irresistible without Living Water and Living Bread.  Only by consuming the Word will sin become easily recognizable and truly distasteful.

Reign in my heart, King Jesus.  If you wouldn’t say it, think it, feel it, or do it, I ask for your grace to live like You.  Amen