Fight.....
Galatians 5:16-18 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. [17] For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. [18] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
Have you ever struggled with a choice, knowing you can come to a God honouring decision, or go through with one which isn’t? It might be a temptation, something that comes back to you again and again, but it might not be – it might be an ethical choice, a decision in the workplace, or one about money…. And you know what you should do, but yet doing what you know you shouldn’t promises so much….. I think this is what Paul is getting at here that inside all of us there is a battle going on.
Day by day we need to become more and more like Jesus, until we begin to think like him, feel like him and act like him. But it is a process, it is a journey we go through. We have to learn to deny our old self. Paul uses the word ‘gratify’ and it always gives images to me of indulgence. When we’re younger we ‘indulge’ in lots of ‘stuff’ – Kebabs, CDs, Shoes, that when we get a bit older we realise may not have been entirely good for us. It’s the same with our sinful nature, it wants us to indulge ourselves, often preying on our selfishness, in ‘stuff’ which probably isn’t good for us.
The battle is that our old self doesn’t want to change, and it wants the opposite of what our new self wants to be. It doesn’t want to be like Jesus, it wants to stay selfish not become selfless. This is where choice comes in. When we face these decisions, sometimes dozens of them each day, we have a choice. Yes God helps us – the Spirit will often niggle our conscience reminding us what Jesus would do; we can turn to our friends for help. But God doesn’t make these decisions for us – if he did we’d be robots. We have to make them.
So how do you make it easier to make decisions that bring a smile to Jesus’ face?
The Bible tells us to ‘flee temptation’. In other words make a choice to stay away from areas that you know you find hard. In other words avoid having to make the choice.
Feed the Spirit. A friend of mine explained the battle like this – there are two dogs on your shoulders wanting to fight, and the one you feed will be the one that wins. Although this is quite an aggressive picture there’s truth in it. The more you cultivate your relationship with God, the stronger your relationship with him becomes, the more vocal is the voice of the Spirit in your life. You sense more when you are in danger of hurting God and others by your actions, so you don’t do it. And the deeper that relationship gets, the more likely it is that you’ll find yourself having to make these choices, because as someone who mirrors Jesus you’ll be living a more selfless life anyway. Live by the Spirit, learn to follow his promptings, and then you’ll make Jesus smile.
Have you ever struggled with a choice, knowing you can come to a God honouring decision, or go through with one which isn’t? It might be a temptation, something that comes back to you again and again, but it might not be – it might be an ethical choice, a decision in the workplace, or one about money…. And you know what you should do, but yet doing what you know you shouldn’t promises so much….. I think this is what Paul is getting at here that inside all of us there is a battle going on.
Day by day we need to become more and more like Jesus, until we begin to think like him, feel like him and act like him. But it is a process, it is a journey we go through. We have to learn to deny our old self. Paul uses the word ‘gratify’ and it always gives images to me of indulgence. When we’re younger we ‘indulge’ in lots of ‘stuff’ – Kebabs, CDs, Shoes, that when we get a bit older we realise may not have been entirely good for us. It’s the same with our sinful nature, it wants us to indulge ourselves, often preying on our selfishness, in ‘stuff’ which probably isn’t good for us.
The battle is that our old self doesn’t want to change, and it wants the opposite of what our new self wants to be. It doesn’t want to be like Jesus, it wants to stay selfish not become selfless. This is where choice comes in. When we face these decisions, sometimes dozens of them each day, we have a choice. Yes God helps us – the Spirit will often niggle our conscience reminding us what Jesus would do; we can turn to our friends for help. But God doesn’t make these decisions for us – if he did we’d be robots. We have to make them.
So how do you make it easier to make decisions that bring a smile to Jesus’ face?
The Bible tells us to ‘flee temptation’. In other words make a choice to stay away from areas that you know you find hard. In other words avoid having to make the choice.
Feed the Spirit. A friend of mine explained the battle like this – there are two dogs on your shoulders wanting to fight, and the one you feed will be the one that wins. Although this is quite an aggressive picture there’s truth in it. The more you cultivate your relationship with God, the stronger your relationship with him becomes, the more vocal is the voice of the Spirit in your life. You sense more when you are in danger of hurting God and others by your actions, so you don’t do it. And the deeper that relationship gets, the more likely it is that you’ll find yourself having to make these choices, because as someone who mirrors Jesus you’ll be living a more selfless life anyway. Live by the Spirit, learn to follow his promptings, and then you’ll make Jesus smile.
Deployed returns on Monday 4th September - have a good weekend!
posted by Gordon at
8:38 am
3 Comments:
Where are you all? I know there are other people reading this. Why are you not leaving comments??? I'm sure most of you have oppinions too. Go on, take the plunge. I'd love to know what you think about the passages too, everybody looks from a slightly different angle - and together we see more of God. I feel a bit silly here all by myself.
Anyway - wow, what a passage and how true. I never really understand why I would ever make the choice that is the oppposite from the one the Spirit is nudging me to take. Why would I make a choice that is not good for me and hurts the person who I care about most? It makes no sense.
But its all this stuff that Gordon has written about. I guess it's because we're in a battle. And its selfishness like Gordon says. That sums it up really. Sad when you think about it like that. I suppose the comfort is in the fact that God is in the process of changing us to be more like Jesus.
OK guys, pick up the gauntlet - disagree, agree, even just say "hi"....
By
Louise, at 11:04 am
I'll leave a comment.
What do you mean "have a good weekend!"?! Deployed have been the most regularly bible study I've stuck to for a while.
I'll need to go and read something for myself :-/
Have a good weekend whatever you're up to.
By
Anonymous, at 1:50 pm
I think some people were thrown off by the idea of having to register and be a member before they could leave comments. I had to sign up for that reason, but hereby just leaving a comment as 'Other'.
Anyway, yes its true what Gordon says about the dogs. He gave that analogy a few times already. Each time I hear it and I take a step back and look at my two 'dogs'. I realise that the godly dog is quite skinny and malnourished compared to the world's dog.
I need a kick in the ass indeed...
By
Anonymous, at 6:03 pm
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