“For My people are foolish, they have not known Me,
they are foolish children, and they have no
understanding, they are wise to do evil, but to
do good they have no knowledge.”
Jeremiah 4:22
We are a foolish people; we have lost our sense of righteousness. The scriptures tell us they will lose their understanding and their knowledge to do good. We have turned doing evil into an art form. We have devised new ways to do every evil thing; it seems that with every new technology we have incorporated it into our depravity. The scriptures also say that adults will behave as children, not just children but foolish children. We should stop the foolishness and return to God. We have lost not only our knowledge of God, but more importantly our fear of God. We walk the earth as if we were here for ourselves. “There are none who understand, there are none who seek after God.”[1] If we change our thoughts and seek after God, we will be healed. We must learn to hate sin as God hates sin. We should change how we think about our own conduct in relation to God. Let us take the beam out of our own eye before we start trying to do laser surgery on our brothers. It is not about not tolerating sin in others, it is about not tolerating it in ourselves. We want to be brutally honest with everyone else, but not with ourselves. We must learn to see ourselves as God sees us, full of our sinfulness. Not just holding up our “righteous” actions and hiding our dirty laundry.
God wants to heal His people, it is time to allow Him to. Are we not tired of living this way? It is time for a rebirth, a rebirth of our hearts, minds, and spirits.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is
good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
Romans 12:2
We must begin to throw off the worlds thinking with its perversion of humanity. We should allow the Spirit of God to transform or renew our minds. Conformity to this world results in death and destruction. We begin to lose our distaste for sin; we begin to accept it as inevitable. Our aversion to sin lessens as we take on more of the world’s characteristics and less of our Saviors. We should change our plans and thoughts for God’s thoughts. He has a perfect plan for us, but He never makes us accept it. We always have a choice. If we choose His way, we will know what is good and acceptable. We should remember that the world does not change us overnight, a slow eroding effect breaks us down little by little. Before we know it things we use to never allow our kids to do are now allowed, because “everybody is doing it” or “their parents let them do it”. We know how it works, we have heard and given all the excuses. We should love our children enough not to let them grow up that way. Just as the Father loves us to much to leave us the way He found us. We should mature in the faith and stop following any and every false doctrine and worldly value that comes along. The world is full of philosophies and some of them sound “logical”, but if it goes against the revealed Word of God it is false. Our spirit should be guiding us not our logic. I realize how difficult for some this will be, my favorite television character use to be Spock from Star Trek. I admired that everything was always about logic forget your feelings, no emotions. But when I surrendered to God I gave up my logic first mentality. I had to learn to live by my faith, not by sight or my thoughts. God is not looking for a mental connection or a “Vulcan mind probe”. He is a spirit and He comes to us in our spirits, not our minds. You cannot think your way to God.
“Do not be deceived: Evil company
corrupts good habits”
1 Corinthians 15:33
Finally, as we change our thinking, we should also change some of our places and friends. It does us no good to change, but go back to our old places and friends. If we continue to hang out with our old friends, it is very good odds that we will fall. If we have friends that are fornicating, we must remove ourselves from this temptation. We should not play around with this or any other sin remove yourselves from the temptation. How many times do “so-called friends” pressure us into sin? We should remember that misery loves company. Those people whose lives are in turmoil want to put others lives into turmoil. We as a people have a history of keeping others down. The “lobster syndrome” every time someone attempts to change or raise his or her lives there is always someone trying to pull them down. When lobsters are in a tank, every time one tries to climb out the other lobsters pull him back into the tank. Let us stop the “hating” of our brothers success, let us stop the envy and jealousy.
We should change our thinking, our hearts, and most times the company we keep. Remember temptation lurks behind every turn. If you have already succumbed to the sin of fornication, then it will be very difficult to stop. If you have not begun, please do not start. Save yourself for yourself. You deserve a better life than the one that awaits you in that life of sin. God certainly thinks you are worth more.
Part of changing our thoughts is the realization that we have gotten to the point where we are confusing love and sex. The two are not the same. We speak of making love to people we do not even know. How can I make love to someone I am not in love with? For many of us we believe everyone we love we have to have sex with them. Do not get me wrong the act of sex can be beautiful at the right time and in the right context. Not every person that God places in my life is for me to have sex with. Many times I was to be a friend or confidant, instead I assumed because I was attracted to them that there had to be sex involved. By my having sex with them I polluted or corrupted the purpose for which God allowed the relationship. I put my will over the will of God. How many times have we had great relationships with people only to have those relationships ruined by the act of sex? Sex always brings another dimension to any relationship. Some people God places in my life to use me to give them direction or a word. Instead of giving them that direction or word, I give them sex and thereby destroying what influence I might have been able to have in their lives. Just because you love someone or someone says they love you that does not mean you are suppose to be with them in that manner. Look to God for direction and have patience. If it is of God, no power in heaven or on this earth can prevent it from happening. Learn to be friends first and then go from there. For most of my life, I was never able to have female friends because I kept having sex with them. Once that occurred that would inevitably end the friendship. We are so much more than sex organs and have so much more to offer each other. Let the true love of God reign in our lives and in our relationships. Sex is such a small part of our daily lives. Don’t believe the hype! We are sexual beings and God has provided us with that pleasure; but only to be experienced in the proper context. Even then, how much time out of the day do we honestly spend having sex? I would venture to say except in extreme cases very little. If aliens were to just monitor our television programs and music they would probably conclude that sex is all we do. Do not let the ruler of this world mislead you; we are more than food, clothes, and sexual pleasure.
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