Worst Enemy

There are too many hindrances as we go on to perfection and be holy – factors that affect our Church attendance and performance: Our work schedules prevent us from going to the Church; Activities of people around us starting from our close relatives are prioritized instead; Poverty or lack of money are common to our less fortunate brothers and sisters and believe it or not, the worst enemy of all, is indeed our own self.

Rom 7:19 For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Rom 7:20 Now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Denying oneself is the first step to become a follower of Christ.

Lk 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

President Noynoy Aquino for example, can command people under him including the Armed forces of the Philippines but he can not simply command his own self to stop smoking.

Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Gal 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

Gal 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

The pleasure of the flesh is the hardest thing to deny. Statistics proved that vices and such like are stopped only when hospitalized and will resume again when all is well.

Prov 1:23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit to you, I will make known to you my words.

Prov 1:24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

Prov 1:25 But ye have set at naught all my counsel, and rejected my reproof:

Prov 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

Prov 1:27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

Prov 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

Prov 1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

Prov 1:30 They rejected my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

Wherefore come out from among the wicked, and be separated from doing the unclean thing; and God will receive us.

Jn 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Denying the works of the flesh, as our number one and worst enemy, is therefore the key to holiness.