"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." — Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV)
"Let us test and examine our ways and return to the Lord!" - Lamentations 3:40
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” - Psalm 51:10
Good morning, men. One of the many things I’ve noticed in my life is the cost of asking God to search my heart and bring up any areas he wants work in. The cost is the things in my life God is going to ask me to submit to him. I’ve realized there’s been habits and patterns that I have become accustomed to and some I’ve been holding onto as a sense of comfort. Some are blatant sin, but some aren’t inherently sinful, but nevertheless prevent me from experiencing what God really wants for my life. Anytime we sit with God and get honest we risk having to lay down things in our life that don’t glorify God. I’ve spent plenty of time justifying to God why this certain thing isn’t that bad, but everything time I find Jesus asking me to submit those areas of my life to him.
Jesus doesn’t leave room for half in, half out when following Him. He wants every area of our life to be submitted to him. This is where the fun term of “progressive sanctification” comes. Simply means the continually process of us being transformed into the image of Jesus. Be patient because it takes time. I think we need to start with asking God to reveal those areas of our life not submitted to him. Be prepared to give up areas you’ve been comfortable in. The good news is what Jesus tells us he’ll give us in its place – peace, love, joy, etc.
Jesus wants to do a work in you, and he doesn’t do it all at once. At some level we all wish we were further along in the journey, at least I do. I heard a great analogy one time about life in Jesus.
There was a guy who was fairly fit. He ran, worked out and ate well. He was a runner and could go some distance when running. He had a routine checkup and the doctor said, “do you know you’re only using 60% of your lungs?” He couldn’t believe it. “How?” he said. “I feel great. I can run long distances and work out with no problems.” The doctor told him he has asthma. The man got an inhaler and the first time he used it he could breathe like never before. It opened a level of lung capacity he didn’t know existed. Great analogy, right? We may feel like we’re killing it. Could be great family, making great money, deadlift twice our body weight. Everything seems great, but until we allow God to expose the areas he wants to work in, lay them down and replace it with His love and peace, we’ll never know the real, full life God intended for us.
Have a great Tuesday.
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24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
I also love this thought and have prayed it over the years.
I also connect with your line of thinking about being asked to sacrifice things that may not overtly be a sin. One of those for me was caffeine and the daily use of it to “get going” in the morning. It was a huge challenge and I had a headache for 9 days…lol. But looking back now my sleep has improved greatly both in quality and in length of time. A nice little atta boy from God.
Thanks kevin