Getting Rid of Obnoxious Houseguests

I am a house full of contradictions. Sin dwells inside me like rude, bossy roommates who've been let in by my own selfish tendencies and become part of the furniture: envy, lust, pride, greed-an obnoxious but familiar bunch of shortcomings that generally dictate my behavior. They take over and inhabit the rooms, though I've discovered I can shove them neatly into closets for short periods of time, when I have a need to impress or a quick spurt of guilt or willpower.

When the Spirit of Christ enters this home, immediately these nasty roommates scurry around on their best behavior until they tire of it, then confidently lurk in the corners and shadows for the time when, like all new guests, this one will leave and they will have charge of me again. Meanwhile, I am filled with constant urges to let them out, to give them freedom to assert their bad manners and destructive ways over me, yet the truth slowly begins to set in: there is a new master of this house.

As I acknowledge, embrace, and yield to the new rulership of the Spirit of Christ, He begins to now dictate my new life. He shows me how He has defeated sin and offers me His power in living a life free of its influence. He provides a way of escaping the tyranny of these horrible houseguests, a new mind to resist their temptation, and life-examples in His word to teach me how to walk in His ways, not my old ways.

My house is now His dwelling; I defer to Him where before I yielded to my own nasty sinful ways-those obnoxious roommates! No wonder Paul says in Romans, "Thank God!…He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions…the Spirit of life in Christ has…cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death" (Chapter 7:18- 8:2 The Message)