Last night I over-indulged in some junk food. I went to
bed feeling unpleasantly stuffed and guilty. All day, I had been thinking about
this verse:
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (1 John 5:4)
One of the aspects of loving the world is indulgence,
doing selfish stuff. And I know better. Not only am I spiritual convicted, my
doctors would frown. Jesus gives me the victory over such stuff by trusting and
obeying Him but I did not exercise any faith and paid no attention to that
still small voice telling me to not do it.
Some would think this is no big deal. The enemy uses that
line. He also says stuff like “everyone
does it” or “nobody is perfect”
to give me excuses — when I know better.
In a sense, to ignore the Holy Spirit, I am denying that
God is right and that He has the right to direct me in the way I should go. I’m
essentially brushing off what He gives me — the power to overcome the world —
as if He is lying to me. In that sense, this is a big deal. This is what John
wrote about lack of faith and its connection to what I think about God’s words
. . .
If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:9–13)
Earlier in my Christian life, I wrote an article about how
God prunes the sin out of our lives. I likened it to pruning a tree. He first
lops off the biggest and most offending branches. Then He saws away all those
things that interfere with fruitfulness in smaller ways. Finally He gets out a
scalpel and picks at the offensive parts that perhaps only He sees but are
nevertheless a hindrance to my spiritual life and walk with Jesus . . . things
like self-indulgence when no one is looking.
I know that He forgives all sin, from the ‘big’ things to
the picky things. That is not dragging me down because:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
Yet I feel down, disappointed by my lack of desire to
please the Lord (and take better care of myself) in the small things, those
disciplines that deny self in order that I might be more like Jesus — who I can
safely say that He was never self-indulgent.
The other thing noted in the passage from 1 John 5 is that
lack of faith in anyone is equivalent to calling God a liar. I suppose that
some might say that they don’t believe the Bible is God-inspired or that God
does not exist, yet in doing that they are calling liars of those who testify
to the Lord’s work in changing their lives. One person said to me, “Oh, you just did it yourself.” If I did
it myself, why on earth would I give all the credit to Someone else?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Lord Jesus, because of You I have life. I also have
victory over the world. I do not have to indulge myself and certainly do not
want to insinuate You are liar by
behaving as if You have not given me the power to say no to selfishness. I know
that You forgive me. You also promise to cleanse me from my foolishness. I wait
on You. Self-discipline includes every part of life!
Today’s thankful list . . .
- God’s power and faithfulness to forgive and cleanse
unrighteousness.
- the Word of God that lets me know the mind of God.
- the mind of Christ that lets me know His thoughts when
His book is not open before me.
- His help in doing some chores I’ve been procrastinating over.
- Finding just the right gifts for my sister’s birthday.
- freedom
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