My devotional today told a story that truly resembles living life each day as a believer in Jesus Christ. He told of swimming in an area of the Mediterranean Sea where riptides were prevalent. He was a youth and strong swimmer so he wasn’t concerned. When he noticed he had been caught in a riptide he simply began to swim against it only to be towed further into the sea. It was then he remembered to swim parallel to the pull until the pull dissipated. That was when he could swim back to shore. In telling this story he compared the riptide to our flesh which pulls us daily into desires of the flesh unless we know not to fight the pull “of our own flesh”. We always lose and get pulled further into the sinfulness of our flesh when we fight of our own strength. We have to use our spiritual wisdom and choose to not fight it but use the wisdom God provides in His Word for fighting temptations which lead to sin.

I have fought my own sinfulness on my own for such a long time that I had thought Paul’s message to us in Romans that “we do what we don’t want to do….” Romans 7:15, was a curse that could never be broken until death. However, putting into place the wisdom God provides us about seeking Him, surrendering ourselves and telling someone we trust will allow us to do the swimming parallel until we are out of the riptide’s pull. Then, we are free to swim to shore. Amazing wisdom!