Power of Spirit pt II

 To finish off my previous post (feeling slightly less dreadful at the moment) I will re-write the quote:
"In any given moment, it is impossible to live in the power of the Spirit and sin at the same time", Francis Chan, "Forgotten God" (etc on last posting).

Let us add to this train of thought:
"So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging way against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members." Rom 7.21-23

There is an ever-constant battle reigning. Whichever you feed will win over you---a seemingly filled life of sinful behaviors that honestly and actually leave us more empty than we began, or a fulfilled life contented in the Lord whatever may come.
The issue is fighting off that sin-nature. Now, we know that that nature is dead, as Scripture tells us it is. It does seem to pursue a haunting love-affair with us, however, floating in and about us in a aphrodisiac-like fog of perfume, intoxicating us at every feasible moment. 
Mine is, with this dreaded RA, a sinking depression and terror at my condition...the unrelenting pattern of disease I never thought I would see, the wish to be free and not constrained to house nor bed out of ridiculously exhausted exhaustion, but to "live" as the world expects one in their 20s to live. To not be "caught" in a trap I have little hope of escaping medically.
It is all too easy to allow thoughts to begin circling, circling, circling, much like any carrion-eater circles a dying creature in the desert. The tighter (and faster) the circling thoughts are, the deeper I sink into the depths of despair---wondering just how long I can physically, mentally and emotionally stand my prison of ill health.
Different sins may affect the reader---sexual sins seem to the biggest, most outspoken in the world today, but also those of money, drugs, drinking...gluttony, too, is big.
We indeed cannot act upon these things without ignoring the prompting of the Spirit. Even as we act on them, we feel the displeasure. We may fool ourselves by saying we deserve whatever it is. We work hard, we should be able to afford a prostitute, just this one time. We had a really bad day at work, why not buy a 6 pack (or more) and drink it to forget? We remembered the hurt of years ago, so why not have our cake and eat it?
Momentary "satisfaction" which leads to more sadness all around. We get an STD, we get a hangover and eventually cirrhosis, we get a larger waistline. We are more miserable than we were before, but are too near-sighted to see it.
Listen to the urging of the Spirit to avoid those circling thoughts. Cut them short with a prayer---the groanings of the Spirit as it says in Scripture, if we do not even know what to say. End the sinful thoughts which do not belong to us; dwell instead on what is better and true.