It is funny how God will keep bringing topics to mind when He wants you to concentrate on them. If he doesn't get your attention one way He will bring it up another. Sometimes He may just want to confirm it, cement it in your mind so that there is no doubt that He is speaking.
That is exactly what has been happening to me the last few weeks. It all started when I began praying for God to help me be more consistent with my devotional/prayer life. I confessed to Him my tendency to not finish what I start or to get distracted by other things when I should be doing something else. I asked for His help to change this about myself. Boy did He come through loud and clear on that one!
In my Eastside Angels group that I lead on Fridays we are doing a study on developing good character traits called "Character Makeover". The trait we are working on right now is Self-control. We did a self-assessment quiz and I scored a 40 out of 40 possible on the section titled "Lose the Appetite; Self-indulgence" (The lesson was loosely based on the reality show "The Biggest Loser"). This was not a GOOD score. It meant that I had major problems in this area. Boy was I surprised, and at the same time not surprised at all.
I suppose it is easy to tell yourself, I don't indulge in drugs, alcohol, sex or any other activities that are obviously sinful. I must be OK. Well, I'm here to tell you that is not necessarily true. There are other things that are sinful that are not quite so obvious. Like when you eat more than you need because you get an endorphin rush from eating, or when you sleep way too many hours in the day because it makes you feel less anxious. How about reading a book or watching TV, videos, playing on the computer, while the housework and other chores you should be doing go undone. This is all self-indulgence and is sin.
Is being addicted to always pleasing your flesh, in what ever way your flesh likes to be pleased, any easier to kick than an addiction to drugs or alcohol? I'm not sure, but I do know one thing. You can avoid being where there are drugs or alcohol to help resist it better. How do you avoid being around yourself? The only way to kick this one, I believe, once and for all is through the power of the Holy Spirit.
When you plant a grape vine, it produces grapes. Why? Because it is a grape vine, it contains all the things inside it that makes a grapevine a grapevine. If we could read it like a barcode it would read; grapevine. You could never get it to produce apples without completely changing it's inner genetic makeup and changing it to an apple tree.
Jesus used grave vines in an interesting analogy. He said “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
What is this fruit He is talking about? It is the Fruit of the Spirit, found in Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and SELF-CONTROL. Against such things there is no law."
So if Jesus is in you, then you become a branch of His vine, and if the vine is of Him then the branch will produce His fruit. Self-control then can be produced by living in the Spirit.
This is great news for me. I know that on my own I will utterly fail in taming this beast called "self" but with His help we are already more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. Amen and God help me!
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