"Do you, boo" used to be my slogan. My thing. I figured that, hey, if someone wanted to do something with his/her life - they got it. Who am I to tell a grown a** person what to do?
But the more I delved into the Word and spent time with God, the more I realized that condoning people in living according to their selfish desires is NO BUENO - yeah, it's your life, but it's not always ABOUT you. As followers of Christ, our fruits are exhibited based on our decisions to submit to either our flesh or to the Spirit in our daily walks. Our lives are literally the representation of Christ in this world each day. WOW. Can you imagine if someone decided whether or not to accept Jesus into his/her heart based on the way you - a follower of Christ - behaved toward them. Oh, wait - people do! If you are the only slice of Jesus someone sees each day but you cuss them out when they say something you don't agree with or you snap at them when you get irritated or you gossip to them about someone else, what part of Jesus are you showing them?? The wrong way to respond to sin is with sin. You respond with GRACE because that's what we, as Believers, are strong enough, wise enough to do in this life. And, most importantly, it is ONLY by God's Grace that we were saved by Christ Jesus. Who are we to not extend the same grace extended to us? I talk about "denying my flesh" a lot in my other posts, which may just sound like I'm abstaining from giving in to sexual desires, but it doesn't just end there. Denying your flesh means making a conscious decision to CHOOSE things that are of the Spirit. The Fruits of the Spirit (outlined in Galatians 5:22-26) are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Choosing the Spirit each day, each moment is a battle won against sin. It's a battle won against evil. Y'all, this life is merely a whole bunch of situations in which we make choices. Profound - I know. But forreal. It's: "Should I respond to his insult sweetly or do I need to show him who's boss?" Choose kindness. "Should I continue this argument, or should I just let it go?" Choose peace. "Should I join my friend in a 'petty party' and talk trash or should I change the subject and turn away from gossip?" Choose goodness. Guys, there aren't levels to our Christian lives. You can't be lukewarm to being a follower of Christ. You can't let some sins be "okay" and other sins be the ones from which you abstain. It's all in. It's a lifestyle. Better yet - it's a NEW LIFE. It's a CULTURE. A lot of people ask why God let's bad things happen in this world. They say, "If God is all-powerful, why does He let someone go into a church and murder people? Why does He let such terrible, evil things happen?" I don't have an answer for everything. But one thing I do know is that this world is not merely struggles of man against man. Flesh against flesh. We are not just a bunch of humans fighting one another. Instead, it says in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Y'all - each of your choices has repercussions in the spiritual realm. Your decision to choose peace, kindness and love over strife, anger and evil makes a difference in people's lives, in people's spirits. That guy who killed people in a church chose to be led by an evil spirit to do so. Those families who forgave that killer for murdering their loved ones chose a spirit of forgiveness, of love to do so. It's not that God doesn't have the power to stop things from happening. He does. But He also has given us this thing called FREEDOM. God loves us SO MUCH He let's us make decisions for ourselves. He lets us choose evil or choose Him. He lets us choose sin/flesh or choose the Spirit. That's why things happen the way they do in this life. Life is all about choices. I was watching a sermon by John Piper a few nights ago, and he mentioned something I knew I had to include in this post. He said, "All people hate suffering. Most people don't hate sin." Drops mic. He also went on to say that, "Life is a FIGHT of faith and a war on sin... The corpse that is sin is always after you trying to kill you." In short - you're ALWAYS going to be fighting sin (the flesh). No matter how close you are to God. No matter how great you think you're doing at denying your flesh. Sin will always be trying to creep its way back into your life. Evil always wants you to succumb to it. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:18-19 that those who don't know God "are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.” Upon looking up the definitions of sensuality and sensitivity (I thought it was odd they were juxtaposed like this, don't they mean like the same thing? Nope!) I found that sensuality means "the condition of being pleasing or fulfilling to the senses" while sensitivity is synonymous with responsiveness, consideration, care, thoughtfulness, empathy. Get this - when we give in to desires of the flesh, when we focus solely on our OWN flesh, we can't feel others. It's as if you can only feel your own desires and needs; you can't experience and empathize with the world the way God has called us to. Going back to my boy John -- when we are in Christ, we CRUCIFY those fleshly, sinful desires. That corpse of sin that tries to come after us needs to be KILLED daily (Galatians 5:24) if we are to win this battle called life. It's not easy, y'all! Do you know how many times each day I have to call on the Spirit of Shut-Up (thanks, Heather) to not tell someone how I really feel but to show God's love instead? It's painful sometimes, but it's NECESSARY. You never know what kinds of spiritual bombs you're setting off or, conversely, detonating with your responses to others. If you're still with me (TLDR version), this post can essentially be summed up by this verse: “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:8-9 I love y'all! PLEASE keep it up! #ChoosePeaceChallenge: For 30 days (and hopefully for the rest of your life) I want you to #ChoosePeace in your daily lives. Just as I mentioned, people are frustrating! But instead of giving in to the flesh and telling them how you really feel, #ChoosePeace. Write down each time you do it and then later reflect on how it made you feel. You'll thank yourself (and God) for it! Musical pairings: "Good, Good Father" - Casting Crowns "Give Me Faith" - Elevation Worship "For Your Glory" - Tasha Cobbs - L
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Covenant BlogArchives
|