“When people say, "I know God forgives me, but I can't forgive myself," they mean that they have failed an idol, whose approval is more important than God's.” ― Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters
PSALM 79-81
The Psalm states the frustration of God over his people's refusal to obey...
13“If my people would only listen to me,
if Israel would only follow my ways,
14how quickly I would subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes!
15Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
and their punishment would last forever.
16But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;
with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (81:13-16)
ROMANS 8:1-18
Paul states that when the Spirit of God lives within us we are changed...
14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.f And by him we cry, “Abba,gFather.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
JOURNAL
These past few days I have really felt and experienced this battle. The pull to go my own way. The pull to do my own thing. The resistance to simple obedience. I see and feel it in my own heart and I realize it is the flesh and the desire to be independent of God. It is a battle that rages yet I also feel and know the tugging of the spirit and how that spirit calls me out of this selfishness.
I have lived my life in the center of this battle. What I never really realized was how deceived I was to my own selfishness. I never really understood how deceived I was to my own rebellion. I wanted life my way, not God's. I wanted to establish my independence and my freedom, apart from God. While I wanted to use God for all the good he could give me, I refused to fully submit to him. I wanted it my way.
This is the struggle Paul addresses. This is the same struggle and I know how deep for me this goes. It goes to the heart of my failures in business, my failures relationally, my failures as a Father and as a Husband. My failures as a friend. They are all linked to my refusal to fully and wholly submit to God.
I have lived my life in the center of this battle. What I never really realized was how deceived I was to my own selfishness. I never really understood how deceived I was to my own rebellion. I wanted life my way, not God's. I wanted to establish my independence and my freedom, apart from God. While I wanted to use God for all the good he could give me, I refused to fully submit to him. I wanted it my way.
This is the struggle Paul addresses. This is the same struggle and I know how deep for me this goes. It goes to the heart of my failures in business, my failures relationally, my failures as a Father and as a Husband. My failures as a friend. They are all linked to my refusal to fully and wholly submit to God.
3So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forcesa of the world. 4But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.b 6Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,c Father.” 7So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. - GALATIANS 4:3-7
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