RECOVERY FOR ROMANS
1-7-2005
WHO IS YOUR HIGHER POWER?
Romans 1:16-32 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
God’s Wrath Against Mankind
18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19. since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen.
26. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30. slanderers, Godhaters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31. they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
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The first two steps on the road to recovery are to acknowledge that we are powerless and that we need a higher power to bring sanity to our lives. Here in this passage Paul hammers that point home by showing just how people become when they refuse to allow God in their lives. Without a place for God in our lives, our impulses and addictions take over and our lives become an unmanageable quest for comfort and pleasure.
It’s an easy thing to point our fingers at others and say that they are the ones that Paul talks about in the last paragraph, but we have to be honest and see that those qualities are found in our own hearts as we seek to serve ourselves rather than God and others. The sad fact is that instead of serving ourselves, we end up becoming a slave to our very own lustful desires, and in becoming a slave, our lives become more and more unmanageable. Ultimately the solution is to invite the higher power Jesus Christ to become part of our daily living, and help us to overcome our hurts, habits and hang-ups.
Can you see God’s eternal power and divine nature in your day to day life?
Would your life seem easier if you were aware of God’s presence in your life each day?
How does the complexities of creation show the awe and wonder of God?
How things can we do each day to help us become more aware of God’s presence in our lives?