I was reading in Romans 8 and I came across this.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Rom 8:13)
"Put to death the deeds of the body"? That sounds ... a little extreme. But I remembered something I read years ago from a Christian psychologist.
The flesh, the enemy within, dons a friendly uniform, one that a Christian might wear, and suggests reasonable directions. We welcome him into our ranks. When he causes trouble, we try to whip him into shape, get him to cooperate with the program and stop interfering with our efforts to do things right. Or we work hard to figure him out. What makes him tick? Why does he demand gratification that way? Maybe a journey into the past will uncover the source of these crazy tendencies and enable us to reason more effectively with him.
What we need to do, of course, is shoot him ... And if he doesn’t stay dead, we must shoot him again, then beat him, then tie him down in the sand under a hot desert sun, turn loose an army of red ants on his body, and walk away without sympathy. And then we must do it again and again, 'til we're home. An overdone metaphor? Not when we see the enemy for who he is, for what he wants to do. We are at war. The enemy within is the flesh, and he wants to ruin our relationships and thwart God's plan.
What am I to kill? The answer, of course, is the flesh, that nature within me inclined to sin. But what is it? How do I recognize it? As a start, think of it this way: sin is any effort to make life work without absolute dependence on God. It is giving higher priority to my satisfaction than to God’s pleasure. It involves a follow-up commitment to find joy for my soul outside of God, a commitment rooted in the belief that there is something truly good that God does not provide. It boils down to self-dependence and self-preoccupation and self-centeredness, attitudes that look to other people and things for the satisfaction we were designed to enjoy. (From Connecting by Larry Crabb)
I think he's got something there.
2 comments:
Tough job. On the one hand, we desire to please Him. On the other, we're pleased when we feel we're on track. To be on track requires we make use of the abilities with which we're endowed by Him. To focus on whatever task is at hand...even those seemingly of a more spiritual nature...we lose that notion of dependence upon Him, even though we don't intend for such to happen. Really hard not to say "I did it" rather than "He did it".
There is a definite measure of self-dependence and self-preoccupation and self-centeredness to achieve in this life. There almost must be whilst in the midst to doing anything in order to get it done. I think the thing is, after that thing is done, we then give thanks and "props" to God. Tough job remembering to do that. Really easy to overlook without intending to.
I embarrassed myself one time when I prayed for guidance on something years ago, received an idea that would do perfectly, and then said, "Oh, never mind, God; I've got this." We are (sinfully) wired to take credit from God.
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