I myself serve the law of God with my mind. – Romans 7:25
Frederick Baily learned to read even though it was against the law for a slave. At age 20, he escaped to Massachusetts and changed his name to Frederick Douglass to hide from slave catchers. He began debating and exposing the injustices of slavery. Douglass published his best-selling autobiography. However, with his identity now public, he had to flee to England to avoid slave catchers. English friends raised money to buy his freedom and he returned to New York and founded the North Star Newspaper. Douglass wrote about abolition and women’s suffrage. His motto was “Right is of no sex. Truth is of no color. God is the Father of us all and we are all Brethren.”
When Douglass was an advisor to President Lincoln, he told the story of his conversion: “I loved all mankind, slaveholder not excepted, though I abhorred slavery more than ever. I saw the world in a new light. I gathered scattered pages of the Bible from the filthy street gutters, and washed and dried them, that I might get a word or two of wisdom from them.”
Whenever the Apostle Paul felt lost, he would think about his conversion experience and remember that he had been freed by Christ. So when you feel overwhelmed and in bondage by sin’s appeal, pray and read the Bible. Allow the Holy Spirit to lift you to real victory over sin. Know that by faith you can claim His fullness and power to live the abundant, supernatural life that Jesus promised. Commit to intercede that your local and national leaders would experience true freedom and bring glory to God by bearing much fruit.
Today’s Verse: Romans 7:25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Galatians 5:13-26
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
