Four Weeks with God and Your Neighbor, #4
Related Categories: Obedience,Gossip,Sin
Ok, so when I started this journey, I expected to identify specific sins so that I could conquer each one within the next 4 weeks. Instead, God is using David's anguished repentance to teach me how to grow deeper in love with Jesus and see that love flow through my every day life.
Now I'm ready to tackle specific sins - right, God?
Once more, God surprises me by taking me in a different direction than I expected. The assignment in the first chapter of Four Weeks with God and Your Neighbor is to read Ephesians 4:17-24. It's a classic passage on repentance: put off sin, put on righteousness. But there is a little phrase in this passage that I often forget and it's the key to lasting change in my life. It's the challenge to "be made new in the attitude of your minds." Based on my own life experience with obedience, my worldview drives my actions. When I find it difficult to break a sin habit, I need to identify what it is about the sin that gives me more pleasure than obedience will give. Ouch.
So, when I regularly let the sun go down on my anger and continually fail to resolve conflicts immediately, I must dig deep into my soul to find out what attitude is driving such sinful behavior. What pleasure am I getting from holding on to anger? We continue in sin because the pleasure of the sin is greater than the pleasure of God's favor. So when I identify judging others as a sin habit I want to change, I probably won't have much success until I also identify why I enjoy judging others rather than thinking the best of them. What pleasure do I receive in speaking evil of another? What pleasure does gossip give that is greater than the pleasure of using my words to build up another?
What attitude must change so that my behavior will change?
When someone brings a negative report about another person to me, why do I tend to react as though the report is true rather than remembering Proverbs 18:17: The first to present his case seems right, til another comes forward and questions him.
What pleasure do I gain by believing the worst rather than choosing to withhold judgment until I have all the facts?
Help me out, sisters.
Why do I speak before thinking? Why do I struggle with jumping to conclusions? What is the remedy?
Change the attitude of my mind, Oh Lord.
In His Grip,
Sharon
This post really hit home squarely for me too. You've asked a lot of questions, which I've been asking myself a lot lately too.
The overall question you ask that runs through all of the others seems to be: "What pleasure does ____ (sin) give that is greater than ____ (pleasing God)?"
I'm wondering if the better way to phrase the underlying heart issue, at least in my case, might not be: "What pleasure do I think ____ (sin) is going to give me that is better than what God has promised to His children who obey Him?" Sin promises pleasure, but delivers death. So, perhaps a more succinct question might be: "What lie am I believing instead of God's Truth?"
That point aside (we’re probably saying the same thing), I've been dealing a lot with this lately too and find two crux issues going on for me. One is my Joan of Arc tendency to want to right wrongs, rescue the oppressed, avenge injustice.. you know all that heroic stuff. On the surface it actually sounds a lot better than sin and even possibly the right thing to do. However, just this week, as I felt my Joan of Arc heart rising up inside me, ready to react, over a particular incident that was being shared with me, the Holy Spirit brought to mind Romans 12:14-21
I broke the conversation right then and there, opened up my Bible, and read the verses to the other person:
“14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse… 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
In my experience, this is one of the very hardest things that we as Christians are commanded to do, and as I shared with another woman the other night, it is also the one thing that makes Christians completely unique over every other type of person in the world. Outside of our redemption in Christ, this is impossible and/or unthinkable.
Secondly, I also believe that people sometimes resort to using their tongue as a weapon, because they feel powerless over their circumstances, and as we know from James Chapter 3, the tongue “is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”
After all, Satan’s name means “accuser of the brethren,” so there’s really no surprise that he would use gossip as much as he does to create disunity and discord within Christ’s body.
Gossip is a form of attack, and why is it that I feel compelled to have my desires fulfilled by attack? Because I’m not getting what I want and what I want is more important to me in that moment than what God wants (which by the way is always best for me no matter what it feels like.) Because I have fear of man instead of fear of God. Because I want to preserve my reputation (LOL! That’s kind of funny in itself, considering what my rep was like before Christ!). Because I think more highly of myself than I ought (Rom 12:3). Because of selfish ambition and vain conceit, etc… (Phil 2:3). Gossip is a symptom/manifestation of a lot of heart issues.
This week, I when believed God and His Word in two real instances, and obeyed Him, it had a profound impact in my life, on those around me (personal life), and on others involved in the conflict (work situation).
Bottom line: I have to trust God’s Word and His Promises more than I trust my desires or the lies that reside beneath my sin. Ravi Zacharias once described sin as similar to a beautiful naked woman bathing on the other side of a river, but by the time he gets to the other side and comes into contact with the sin, he finds out that it is actually a shriveled, ghastly corpse mired in quicksand from which we can never, ever escape from apart from God’s saving grace.
Praise God that His grace super-abounds over our sin, but may the Holy Spirit compel me to trust His Word before I’m tempted to give in to sin and nasty gossip!
Yes, thank God for His amazing grace, the more I see my sin, the more I revel in His amazing grace!