“Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling, and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.” (Romans 13:13-14 NLT)
When you suggest to your spouse: “Let’s go out for dinner!” Who are you really thinking about? If you’re the wife you may be thinking: “I just don’t feel like cooking!” Or the husband may be thinking: “I’m tired of leftovers!” And even as you think of the menu, whose meal are you thinking most about? Where am I going with this?
Typically, we’re the center of our own universe, so, even in the above scenarios, we’re usually at the heart of our “kind” offers. In the things outlined in the verses above, the options are more clearly defined in terms of what’s right and what’s wrong, but as believers in Jesus that’s not always the case is it? We, most often (and I’m giving us the benefit of the doubt here), want to do the right thing.
We really do want to avoid outward manifestations of sin, like those outlined in the verses above, but where we sometimes hit a snag is in the more personal preferences that we enjoy, like food, entertainment, even events and activities at church. Personal purity of body, mind, and spirit are sometimes compromised by our own desires to do and be what we want, not necessarily and always what the Lord wants or wants for us.
For example, something as fundamental as reading God’s Word on a regular basis can become a battle for us. There are lots of seasons in our lives when it can be hard to schedule and/or find 15-30 minutes of alone time to do ANYTHING! So, to be able to sit down in a quiet spot to read the Bible and speak with God is a relatively small thing that demands strategic planning.
Yet, in our haste to “do life,” it’s one of the things that’s most easily sidelined for more pressing issues. Why do you think that is? Could it be among the greatest issues with which we wrestle is the battle between self-denial and what we perceive as self-fulfillment?
Even in light of all the pressures we face from varying fronts – family, work, church, recreation, time with friends, etc. when it gets right down to it, too often we want what we want! At the end of the day, most of us are willing to do the obligatory things for which we feel responsible, but with what we consider “optional” time, we prefer to make our own decisions about that.
John MacArthur hit the proverbial “nail on the head” when he wrote: “The true gospel is a call to self-denial. It is not a call to self-fulfillment.” Do you think it was an easy choice for Jesus to allow Himself to be nailed to a cross. On some levels that was the easy part. The mocking, being spit on, flogged, having the skin ripped from His body by a lead-tipped whip would have produced pain anyone would have wanted to avoid.
Yet, He didn’t allow Himself to experience those things to benefit Himself, but us. We would benefit from following His example in times of choice when we have to decide how to invest the minutes the Lord has appropriated for us. Would to God we’d learn to deny ourselves and give Him first place, not only in our heart and mind, but in our schedules.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 