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Need Help Overcoming Cherished Sin?
This is Where the Rubber Meets to Road
By: David M. Curtis
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"Many will try for years in vain to overcome their
passions without making any change to the laws of
nature. They are in fact trying to do God's job and find
the experience to be a miserable failure." |
Lets read a few
verses in the Bible together shall we?
1Ch
28:9 And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and
serve him with a perfect heart
and with a willing mind: for the
LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the
thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou
forsake him, he will cast thee off forever.
2Co 8:12 For if there be first a willing
mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to
that he hath not.
Important observation. Man has the ability to do something's, and he is
incapable of doing other things. That is what this verse is saying.
The first step is to be willing. If you are not willing it is OK because
God can still work with you, if
you talk to God about it.
Once I knew a man who said "I AM NOT GIVING UP XYZ, AND I DON"T CARE IF
IT IS WRONG OR NOT."
So what did I do? Did I keep "nagging" at him to quit? Of course not!
That would be pointless. Did I pray for God to give him victory over
that sin? No! I did not do that either, God is not in the business of
forcing people to change. Instead I began to ask God to make him
willing to change.
Secondly we must recognize what is our role in the plan of salvation and
what is God's role. We are not to try to do his job. And we must
understand that He will NOT do what is our role for us.
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"You cannot control
your passions, but you can control what time you go to bed, or whether
or not you get exercise in the open air today or not."
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There are two types
of temptation
1. Appetite
2. Passion
It is God's job to
overcome our passions.
It is our job to overcome our appetites.
This may surprise you but God CANNOT overcome your appetites. That is your job.
In fact that is where the real warfare takes place.
On the other hand you CANNOT overcome your passions. That is God's job. Please
understand this next point.
God can only help you
overcome your passions in the same degree that you overcome your appetite.
When you overcome your appetite, God will do his part and overcome your
passions.
There are two laws we must obey 1. the Natural Law and 2. the Moral Law.
We cannot obey the
Moral Law, no matter how much we pray, no matter how many scriptures we claim,
until we choose to obey the Natural Laws.
Our job is to obey the Natural Laws as perfectly as we can. That is something we
CAN do.
We are not capable of obeying the Moral Law. That is something we CANNOT do.
Christ obeyed both laws. He gave us an example of obedience. Through the Bible
and the Spirit of Prophecy He left us a road map to follow so that we could
follow in His foot steps.
Through out our life times we become accustomed to indulging sinful passions.
The gospel calls for a life of TEMPERANCE and SELF DENIAL. Only through
practicing temperance in all things and self denial of appetite can we undo the
results of sin upon our characters.
Many will try for years in vain to overcome their
passions without making any change to the laws of nature. They are in fact
trying to do God's job and find the experience to be a miserable failure. If you
would be free from your passion and pride, learn the lessons found in the book
Ministry of Healing. The Great Controversy is the most powerful book given us
detailing the aims of the papacy, and all of that is vital to know. But the two
greatest Spirit of Prophecy books given us to form right character is Ministry
of Healing and Desire of Ages. These are the three most important books Ellen
White ever wrote in my estimation.
That is where I direct your attention to. Learn all you can about the 8 laws of
health, and obey them with all your strength. When you get older you will be
tempted to rebel and find your own way in life. That is a normal part of
developing into a state of Independence as an adult. But through that time NEVER
let your self rebel from the 8 laws of health. Do not indulge your appetites and
set for your self a pattern that would certainly prove you ruin unless
corrected.
You cannot control your passions, but you can control what time you go to bed,
or whether or not you get exercise in the open air today or not. You can control
whether you eat a healthy diet of fresh fruits and vegetables or a diet of fast
food at taco bell. Those are things you can control. When you make good
decisions for the things you can control that will give Christ the right to
enable you to obey the things you cannot do on your own.
You will have proven to the universe that you truly are WILLING to obey God and
DESIRE to keep His commandments
because you have obeyed in the
things you could. Jesus has perfect victory over
the things you are not able to obey. Now that you have done your part Christ can
impart to you His victory, because you have born fruit showing you really want
it and are willing to deny self to get it. |
The Counterfeit Christ
