"By the Spirit, we're prompted to try and see -- what are [the] idols in my life? When I find extreme reactions to something, that's a pretty sure sign that if I follow it down the rabbit hole, there's an idol lurking there. If I'm extremely sensitive to criticism, ...why is that? There's an idol lurking there. It suggests that it matters to me hugely what other people think of me. I've got to be successful, I've got to be popular. And that's an idol that needs to be fought and dug out by the roots. ...As those who are sons of God by the Holy Spirit, we know God intimately and that guarantees our future, which is to be with Him forever. And it's an ever-increasing delight in that relationship that is the expulsive affection that drives out those other things that we love so much that drag us down. A man who was struggling with a particular ...sin... said that willpower did not achieve progress. He later wrote this: 'God made me realize that my choice wasn't simply between sinning or not. It was between desiring Jesus, who would satisfy, or desiring something else, which would not. The struggle didn't become easy then, but it did become winnable, because I realized that I had to choose not to walk away from something, but towards Someone.' It's not that we're simply to fight against sin, we are to pursue God, and the Spirit draws us more and more to Him, to delight in Him. ...Examine the desires that lie behind our sinful actions, and recognize that each of them is more deeply met in Christ, and none of them will be satisfied in sin." Vaughan Roberts Romans, part 4, "How can I change?" Keswick Convention 2014 Video from Clayton TV |
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All thy sins were laid upon Him, Jesus bore them on the tree;
God, who knew them, laid them on Him, and, believing, thou art free. Joseph Denham Smith (c. 1817-1889) Praise reflection archives
May 2020
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...take root downward and bear fruit upward.
2 Kings 19:30 |