I read 1 Peter 4 and Romans 5 this morning.
1 Peter 4:2 - ... anxious to do the will of God. - I run into so many people who are anxious about so many things. They are anxious about money or the next promotion or what someone said or whether they are being marginalized or if they are getting their way or if they will win or...... and yet here is Peter saying the only thing it is right to be anxious about is doing the will of God. What does that look like? When I see people around me being anxious I notice that they are consumed with it. They think about it always. It changes everything and affects everything. It affects how they rest and how they eat and how they sleep and how they talk. When you tell them to stop they say they can't. Can you imagine if we were anxious to do the will of God? If we were consumed with it? If everything else in life was affected by it? If it affected our eating and our sleeping and our attitude? Lord, I want to be anxious to do your will.
Romans 5:17 - ... for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. - Can you honestly say that you have victory over sin in your life right now? If yes, than you can know you are walking where God has called you. If not, than you are not walking with Christ the way He has called you. We can call it struggling or whatever else we might come up with, but the truth of being in Christ Jesus is triumph over sin in this life. We have let the world water down the truth of the Bible so much we actually expect sin to be a natural part of the Christian experience when God has said otherwise. God has said that if you are in Christ you will have victory over that which tempts you and has won in the past. That means if you sin with pornography being in Christ means you should be free of that now. If you are not there is a problem with your relationship with God. It isn't just a weakness or a struggle it is a major problem with your faith because Jesus said you would be free indeed. I think so many of us have just settled into the idea that sin should be there. Sin should not. We don't need to become legalistic or remove grace, but we have to realize the proof of Jesus being in our life is less and less sin not. It is more and more freedom and not just little by little. Jesus healed instantly. We have to be careful of the lie that says Jesus heals us slowly over time. It causes us to let our sin endure longer than it should.
I am reading a book and the author makes a statement that really stuck with me. He says, "In the same way, you have to stop loving and pursuing Christ in order to sin." Did you catch that? You and I have to QUIT loving and pursuing Jesus to sin. I believe that is true. You can not love God and sin. You can sin and then return to God, but we need to sin for what it is - a denial of God and a love for something more than we love Him. When you sin you are picking that over God. Think about that. When you look at pornography you are picking what you see and feel over God. When you gossip you are picking importance over God. When you lie you are picking safety over God. When you are selfish you are picking yourself over God. You cannot love and pursue god and sin. Man, that changes a lot for me. The next time I want to sin I will he confronted with the gravity of the choice I am really making.
Love, Michael
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