Our Continued Struggle With Personal Sin - The Elephant In The Room

My Utmost For His Highest

 

If you love Me, keep My commandments. —John 14:15

 

“Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Luke 9:23). In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. […] If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. […]  as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. […] If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.”  CHAMBERS

 

It's the elephant in the room, our continuing to choose our own way, to obey our own voice and not His, to make our own rules and disregard His commandments.  We don’t want to talk about it.  We don’t want to think about it.  We prefer to pretend the elephant is not sitting on our sofa.  And what were His commandments?  Love God, love others, deny yourself, follow Jesus.  None of which we can do on our own, but all of which, when we try to do on our own, we fail miserably.  I can remember the words from one of our grandchildren when she was 5 or 6.  “Let me! I can do it myself!”  Some might call that self-assurance.  I would call it not wanting to be told what to do. Oops! When have I heard that before.  Oh, yes, it was in the Garden.  It’s how this mess got started.  The Greek word used for sin is “hamartia” (ham-ar-tee'-ah) which means to miss the mark.  Aiming for one thing and hitting somewhere else.  Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” The point here is that we very often deal with sin by trying harder, hacking at the branches of sinful behavior, instead if striking at the root, hitting the target if you will, dealing with sin at its source, a divided heart.  ELGIN