The Archenemy

Christianity maturity is downward. 

It is growing not less aware of your unworthiness, but more. 

As what the Apostle Paul said,

Rom 7:18 — Rom 7:20

"For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me."

The Apostle Paul wrote the book of Romans almost 20 years after he was converted on the way to Damascus. I am perplexed by how he recognized that nothing good dwells in him, and on how the more he matured as a Christian, the more he became aware of how unholy he was before a holy God.

In his other books, he wrote,

"I am the least of all Apostles" (1 Cor. 15:9), AD 55

"I am the least of all Saints" (Eph. 3:8), AD 60

"I am the Chief of Sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15), AD 62

~ All of those things make sense to me now.

Everything is indeed a slope going down.

I have finally come to the conclusion that my worst enemy all this time is neither the World nor the Devil - but Myself. 

I must die to this self-glory!

I must die to this self-righteous!

I must die to this self-exaltation!

O Lord, deliver me from this evil man, myself.

Let this be my battle cry as I engage in every day's warfare.