Who is wise?
Let him understand these things.
Who is prudent?
Let him know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right;
The righteous walk in them
But transgressors stumble in them.
Hosea 14:9
My flesh and mind and heart rebel at discipline.
I do not want to get up in the morning,
I do not want to spend my time on anyone but me.
I do not want to eat properly.
I do not want to go to work.
I do not want to have to make decisions.
I do not want to be responsible.
I do not want to have choices made for me.
I do not want to be forced to do anything.
My flesh mind and heart are full of rebellion.
God’s word asks who is wise?
Who is prudent?
Then advises that the wise and prudent person understands and knows that the ways of the Lord are right.
Righteous people walk in them but that is not the choice of those who live by the flesh.
Our flesh is not evil. It is a gift from God, created to be used for Him and His glory.
Our will is not evil. It too is a gift from God and a tool that if yielded to Him He can use to mold us into His image. Likewise our minds and hearts are not evil, but gifts again for His glory.
Sometimes I hate that.
Other times I am so grateful that He gave me the choice and the honor to be able to choose His ways rather than those that my flesh would choose.
In years past my flesh ruled and I was subject to it’s demands.
Often I have found myself falling back into that pattern and I have learned that daily I must take back the reigns and drive myself towards God.
The trick to doing that, which I never understood until now is to be so full of God that everything else is so absolutely trivial as to not matter at all. It makes the choice to follow Him in submitted discipline quite easy. It is like skipping the veggies and going right to the desert.
Being full of God is not easy for a person without discipline. Those of us who were rebels of the 60’s and/or 70’s are now having to live lives we never dreamed we’d live.
We have had to either conform to the rules of society or be kicked out one way or another.
Discipline was a dirty word back then. My flesh does not like it.
But as I learn to feed my mind with Christ and to fill my spirit with the Word and as I submit my will to the Father I find delight in the discipline of giving myself to Him in devotion prayer and worship daily.
I never thought I would or even could form enough of a habit of study to become disciplined to the point of surrender.
I will to do what He who loves me desires of me. My heart leads me in response to His love for me, but my will chooses to follow through and continue to daily give myself to Him by study and worship and in seeking Him.
In all this my spirit has become strong and my spirit submitted to Him takes control guiding my thoughts and actions and causes my flesh to come in line with the will of God.
My flesh is not evil but it would be if I allowed it to rule. My mind is not evil but it would be if I allowed it to rule. My heart also is not evil but it would be if I allowed it to rule.
The only way to flee from the trap of allowing anything but God to rule is to fill myself up with Him and His Word and His Spirit to the point that there is nothing else that is important. This transforms my flesh into the image of my spirit which is becoming Christ who is in me.
Wisdom is to feed on Christ, attend to the Spirit, and submit to the Father. It happens from the inside out.
This then allows our flesh, our mind, and our will to be used for God and His glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment