Power over ourselves.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Earlier in this chapter, the Apostle Paul writes about freedom. Freedom from, but just as important, freedom to. When Paul teaches the Church about sin, he digs deeply into the causes, the origins of our sin. Paul uses words like satisfy, nature and desires. These are evidences of urges and cravings from within!

Paul then moves from talking about freedoms from sin to having power over our sin. The key; the power of the Holy Spirit! Not just letting the Holy Spirit take control, but gaining the edge over disordered desires that plague our lives. Paul also gives us the results of these bent desires. Think about this, these are desires that drag us down, yet we not only want to see them as helpful, but we actually believe they will give us a better life, tricking us into thinking they can fulfill us! The summary – that’s all a lie!

Paul writes the truth of where our own cravings and desires take us. Paul writes, “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these” (Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭19‬-‭21‬). Some might say, “well that sounds like a regular weekend experience for me!”When we feel these intense influences coming from within our heart, we blindly hope that we can avoid the effects of our decisions – hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, and envy! Our lives, as well as our relationships get WORSE, not better. And, the more we feed our flesh or old-man/old-ways, with these disordered cravings and desires, the more these stubborn cycles and traps of addiction turn us into mental-health pretzels, taking over our life! God warns us against giving into sin, not just because it’s wrong, but also because it is absolutely destructive to us and those around us.

Here’s the craziest part of all – our conscience tells us we’re wrong. This God-given early warning system starts screaming in our head, and we just override it! Continually and consistently ignoring the siren in our soul leads to coldness and lack of sensitivity in our heart. At first we want to act out these desire in secret, hiding and ducking any chance of attracting the attention of a spotlight shining the truth. But at some point the light no longer bothers us! Guilt becomes ineffective and eventually we want to join with others of likeminded, bent and broken desires to completely dull any possibility of stopping our pursuit of doing whatever it is we want. It is quite easy to justify anything at this point.

We’ve joined a tribe of those who have not only chosen similar desires, but for the sake of solidarity, they celebrate them! No matter how innocent the beginning, no matter how one found themselves opening the door to these deadly sins, there is no way to stop them until they have destroyed our entire life. The choice becomes put them to death by the power of the Holy Spirit, burying them with Christ’s mercy and grace OR let them drag our soul through the living hell of consequences that are inescapable. Even with the forgiveness and power to kill our disordered desires, God never promises that we can sneak away from the consequences. Continuing in bad behavior and continuing to do so with a bad company of friends will 100% yield horrible results – it is just a matter of time. You know this is true! We all know this is true.

Prayer

Dad,
There is regular suffering that everyone eventually goes through. Then there is godly suffering, endured because of living Your truth, which is hard, but brings such amazing fruit. But finally, there is suffering because of sin, and selfishly making bad decisions that yield awful consequences and results. All are painful. But our own actions, weakly justified, leaves us with unimaginable pain because we actually thought we could get away with it. But oh what joy and freedom in confession, repentance and acceptance as well as the consequences when the Holy Spirit moves in with power to resist, heal and overcome! Help us drag our sins and desires out into the light and allow you to both free us and give us power to live like Jesus.

All of them.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭1‬-‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I actually get giddy with delight when I read about anyone interpreting and giving cultural and historical context to an Old Testament passage. Jesus did this a lot. And, the Apostle Paul is also an expert on this. These lessons are golden for not just a perspective on multiple, multicultural experiences thousands of years earlier. They are platinum for application today! Paul brings the O.T. stories into a conversation with a mixed bag of Jewish, Greek and Roman readers and whiteboards the moral, spiritual point that is critical to understand even today.

Paul reminds the churches, “remember…” and repeats the phrase, “all of them.” In Greek, καὶ πάντες, “and all” experienced something. Guided by a cloud, walked through the sea on dry ground, baptized into Moses, the cloud and the sea! All ate and drank the same same spiritual food and drink. All of them, exactly the same experiences, circumstances, fears, victories. And likely the same sorrows and joys. ALL OF THEM. Yet… something terrible happened.

Yet, most… Paul uses the word, pleión, the “comparative” numerical majority did not make God happy. Paul says, God did not have a “good opinion” of the majority. And because of that, God scattered (strewn about) them in the desert. ALMOST all of them did not end up making it to the promised land and inheritance God intended.

I would guess that most people think it’s hard to make God happy, especially when it comes to themselves. How can I make God happy? Is it perfection? Is is a strong and consistent moral aptitude or behavior? These are critical questions in the life of a believer. Paul delivers the truth to the churches – quit satisfying yourself, quit choosing shortcuts to get what you want in a way that is deadly, poisonous and not of God! Paul writes, “These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.””

We have the stories, and now we get the application as to why the stories were captured and written down. The stories are for us. They (the Israelites) CRAVED evil, lusted after evil and worshipped Satan masked as fake forms and cheap substitutes of God. They is ME! I have to ask myself, am I “ALL OF THEM.”

When I have seen the miracles of God and experienced His majesty, His glory, His presence and I am still not satisfied? Am I all of them? When I’ve seen supernatural provision and blessings beyond normal and I still crave, still lust for evil and my own way, am I all of them?

How do I make God happy? It is simple, yet profoundly difficult at the same time. It is faith. Even while seeing provision, miracles and God’s presence and still in my moments of humanness and weakness, I must CHOOSE to believe that God will give me my true heart’s desires and fulfill longings that are deep within my soul? I must have faith and choose to crave God MORE than I lust after momentary and fast-fleeting experiences that fulfill my own flesh and disordered desires.

Choose your lover well, for that love determines the fulfillment of a promise or a desolate destination of eternal wanderings!

Prayer

Dad,
You have brought me to this dance, this amazing experience of new life and hope for eternal life. So my intention is to not only dance with you, it is to stay with you and not change dance partners only to end up going home with someone else! Thank you for Your Word. Thank you keeping the most challenging and difficult stories in the Bible to remind me of what is true. Thank you for your spokespersons and gifted writers who have left me with these powerful applications of how to live and how to choose faith. Thank you for your mercy and grace as I determine to please you through faith.