The Christian's Battle with Sin

I read this illustration by John Bunyan today and it nailed me right between the eyes with "That's the perfect illustration for struggling with sin in the Christian life." Here it is. Tell me what you think. If you want to read the full sermon, click here or the title of this post above.

Of the person that truly wants spiritual maturity (which he pictures as coming to Christ) Bunyan writes, you are "like the man that would ride full gallop, whose horse will hardly trot! Now, the desire of his mind is not to be judged of by the slow pace of the dull [horse] he rides on, but by the hitching, and kicking, and spurring, as he sits on his back. Thy flesh is like this dull [horse]; it will not gallop after Christ; it will be backward, though thy soul and heaven lie at stake" (from the sermon Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ).

Oh, I feel like that man all the time! My heart beats to be like Christ yet my life is not. The "horse" of spiritual maturity doesn't seem backward. A lot of times I wonder if it isn't dead.