Romans 12:2
Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well formed maturity in you.
Isn't that really the heart of having a relationship with God?
Growing up?
Maturing in character?
Allowing the Holy Spirit, through out relationship with Jesus, to remove old patterns of sin and create a new way of living and interaction with the world?
I think maybe the answer is yes.
It isn't about our comfort in life. It isn't about our accumulation of "things" and "stuff".
(Side-note - God doesn't mind you having "stuff" and "things"....He just doesn't want "Stuff" and "things" to have you).
It's about allowing the economy of heaven to come down and infiltrate every part of your being and your daily life.
That is the change that takes place when we come to the end of ourselves.
Now the funny part in all of this, that old way of living....that old way of thinking, will come back from time to time and try and get through the door to take up residence inside us. IT will come in the form of a single thought....maybe a memory....could even come in the form of an old so called "friend" we use to run with. Small talk between us and that so called old friend carries with it a deadly seed of destruction. It stirs us to romanticize about the old days. It's amazing the power that the human mind has in reconstructing those old memories. When that old nature we use to possess prior to meeting Jesus gets behind a thought, it will turn it into some of the most glorious times of our life. Never mind the pain that was created through out actions. The old sin nature will hide that from view. All we remember is the euphoria of using. Never mind being locked up for extended periods of time. Never mind going through detox while being locked up. Note to self - Law enforcement and jail time do not make for sympathetic situations when you are detoxing.
As the Romans 12:2 passage states, we don't allow ourselves to be shaped and driven by the examples the world around us puts out there.
Galatians 5:1 reads: Christ has set us free to live a free life. SO take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. In other words, if you have moved into this new life with Jesus, then get a back bone and fight for it. There are forces and demonic spirits that want to draw you back into the darkness. They will come with smooth sounding words coming from honey dripping lips. They will seek to stir up the old passions and desires...you remember them don't you? It's the same passions and desires that started all this mess in the first place. The Galatians verse begins with a declaration of the greatest truth ever ----"Christ Has Set Us Free To Live A Free Life!"
Free from the destruction of addiction.
Free from the darkness and isolation that sin sought to cover us with.
Free from the penalty of sin...
Free from the power of sin....
Free from the presence of sin....
All of this accomplished by the Strong Hand of Love covering us by our Heavenly Father.
God on you...
mb
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