ABSENCE OR ABSENCE, YOUR CHOICE

Poor little Johnny has really been getting a bad rap over the years and has been blamed for all sorts of wrong doing and mishaps just so we could make a point. Well. . .here’s my point, but first, I’d like to give little Johnny a reprieve from any further impunity and direct our thoughts toward little Jimmy.

Here’s the thing, little Jimmy was a good boy but nonetheless, he was just that. . .a little boy. He was still full of mischief, tested his parents, and was sometimes downright disobedient. . .some innocent, some not. It’s not that little Jimmy wanted to be disobedient; it was just something that he wanted to do at the time that garnered the warning of his earthly parents. He just did not see any harm or danger in doing that action.

What it all boiled down to was that he didn’t trust his parents when they told him “No.” He subconsciously wanted to find out for himself if they had any justification or credibility in saying no to that really fun thing that he wanted to do or didn’t they want him to have any fun? Like little Jimmy, we had to learn for ourselves the pain of doing wrong, whether the pain was physical, emotional, or spiritual. At one time or the other, we all did the opposite of what our parents told us.

As followers of Christ, we also do the opposite of what is right. We indulge in the above attributes of our earthly youth counterparts while we were young. In like manner, when we test and disobey our earthly parents, we also spiritually test God and are disobedient [1] to Him. In essence, when we disobey God, we are saying that we do not trust you Lord [2]. We also raise ourselves above God and become idolatrous.

When man grows spiritually, he feverishly tries not only to conform to the image of Christ [3], but he tries to remove all the bad things that are in his life [4]. So much so that he has a tendency to sometimes lose focus and perspective in the one he is trying to emulate [5]. In Christ, we have the truth and the guidance, but like earthly children who are still on milk [6], we ignore the truth and the guidance [7].

“. . .and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free [John 8:32 KJV].”

Ridding oneself of the bad things that saturate and destroy our life is a good thing. However, it is not the absence of the wrong things in our lives, but it is the absence of the right things in our lives that causes the turmoil. We will always have the bad things in our lives that plague and tempt us, but hallelujah, we will always have Jesus Christ who will never leave or forsake us [8] and who will always save [9], deliver [10], and heal us [11].

If we follow Christ with a passion, have Him at the forefront of our minds, and are obedient to Him, we should be able, theoretically, to repel the temptation from coming to fruition. Nevertheless, since obedience is all a process, we will eventually fail [12]; but greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world [13]. Nevertheless, when we fail, repentance is in order. However, repentance is not the act of worrying about the consequences of our sin, but true repentance is the act of wanting to restore the presence of God in our life. The former is not true repentance.

Christ is the right thing and if we focus on Him [14] in these days, we will be victorious [15], because Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life [16].

Let me leave you with this:

The enemy is an idiot, the more he persecutes us, the closer we get to God, and if Satan would just leave us alone, we’d destroy ourselves.

_________________________________

[1]  Romans 3:23
[2]  Mark 9:24
[3]  Romans 8:29
[4]  proverbs
[5]  Ephesian 5:21
[6]  Hebrews 5:13
[7]  2 Timothy 3:5
[8]  Hebrews 13:5
[9]  Matthew 1:21
[10]  Galatians 1:4; 2 Timothy 4:18
[11]  Exodus 15:26
[12]  Isaiah 64:6
[13]  John 4:4
[14]  Psalms 22:3
[15]  1 Corinthians 15:57; 1 John 5:4
[16]  John 14:6