Tuesday, March 14, 2017

What Is More Important - Serving God Or Serving Yourself



…you are that one’s slaves whom you obey… —Romans 6:16

{CHAMBERS} “The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. […] There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. […] (Remember what lust is— “I must have it now,” whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. […] Even though you say, “Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like,” you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, “He will break every fetter,” while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life.”

{ELGIN}  There is a commercial that offers people to get money today that they will be receiving monthly or yearly until some time in the future.  The people in the commercial say “It’s my money and I want it now!”  Sounds reasonable.  But what you are not told is that you are not going to get all of your money.  There is a heavy price to be paid for immediate gratification.  There are income tax preparers that offer an immediate refund.  What they really mean is that if the tax payer will give them a portion of the return, they will give the tax payer the balance that day.  They can have it now, but there is a cost.  Both examples are an indication of desperation.  Of something inside the people that says “ignore the consequences, and seize the moment”.  That is the way it is when we yield to sin.  We ignore the cost and seize the moment.  To resist sin is not something you can do just because you are a Christian.  I am certain you already know that, from experience. But because you are a Christian, you can resist sin with the help the Lord provides.

(James 4:7) “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  Because you are submitted to God you can resist the devil … temptation, escape the bondage of sin.  When Jesus faced temptation He responded with the Word of God.  His focus was not on Himself but on His Father.  When Satan said “turn those stones into bread”, he was talking to the one who would turn water into wine.  It was not out of the realm of possibility.  Certainly there was  physical need.  But Jesus, instead, chose to focus on the Father, not himself.  (Matthew 4:4) “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The point was made again after Jesus met the woman at the well.   (John 4:31-34)  “Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.””  The source of our spiritual strength is not our determination, but our submission.

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