Okay, so I am going to trust that you've been practicing falling to your knees and asking for forgiveness before the devil has time to even open his venom mouth. If not, let's start today.
I believe God has a sense of humor. I've been talking about taking every thought and emotion captive, asking for forgiveness before the devil can point the finger and accuse us of doing wrong, right? Well last night I just had to laugh. I was watching my favorite show (about the only show I watch), "Dancing with the Stars." Every time I saw the Latin William Levy I was taking my thoughts captive. Not that he was captivating (right ladies?), but I sure paid attention to what I was thinking and where my eyes were roaming. I did turn the television off or change stations a few times. It was a lesson for me too.
Do we look at other people with lust or with the thought "God you did really well with this creation." I think the first is probably more likely to happen.
Considering what the Lord says about where our eyes roam, what comes out of our lips, and how we act is much more important to our integrity that anything else. We were talking to our youth group tonight about the scriptures that we could run to when we face adversity. It should not surprise me that at least four of the young adults didn't really pay attention to what was being taught. I asked the leader if I could ask the group a question. In turn he said "yes." I got real with them when I gave them a directive as I give it also to you. "Raise your hand if you want to be separated from God." You see sin keeps us separated from God. He turned away from Jesus while he was on the cross because He could not look at him while he was carrying our sins. Just in case you're curious no one raised their hand either. I could see there were some that truly thought about what I said and others that didn't hear it at all. God's word does not turn void, so it definitely wasn't a question wasted. I hope you will ponder over it also.
Most of us want a happier life, a life full of some really good stuff, but we are not willing to work for it. We would rather take the easy way out, get out of sin with a free card or coupon. "I've gone forward, said my little prayer and got my 'get out of hell free card.' Now see you next Easter." Come on get real with me now. Most of us think we can do all this and go back to sinning. We've got the fire proof insurance. Would you call this living Christ centered? Would you say that you can now have a full Christ centered relationship with someone? I tried it and it didn't work for me. If it is working for you, please share with me your tactics. My guess is that my comment box will be empty.
Making a decision to truly live in a relationship with Christ in the center of it has so many more rewards.
A young adult friend of mine, Brett, told me "You can't go into a relationship expecting it to fail; the reason for dating is to find God's life mate for you." I am thankful that a my young 18 year old made this statement. In the word it says in Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."
If you expect failure, most likely you have failure. If you think there is a back door open, there usually is one and you will probably walk through it. If you were to ask divorcees if they had this thought, I believe all of them would say "yes, I did."
If you are loving the way Christ loves, you won't want a back door, the "d" word will not even be considered because your relationship is of Christ's will for your life and not your own.
In 1 Timothy 5:22 it says "Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people’s sins; keep yourself pure." Wow, God even speaks on being pure when touching someone. I heard a young man say that him and his girlfriend didn't kiss because they wanted to make sure they kept themselves away from sin. I didn't even know this was in the bible when I was growing up; did you?
This scripture speaks volumes! If you see couples today, most of us hold hands, sit close to each other, suck face a lot, and the dress attire is not modest at all. I ask you, are the couples having a Christ centered relationship? Are you persuing a Christ centered relationship?
Perhaps now that we have at least one tool in our Christ centered relationship tool box, we should ponder on this for a while.
I hope that you are beginning to desire a very healthy relationship beginning with pursuing God and what He wants for your life. I hope that you are spending time getting to know him and enjoying his dotting over you.
~Be encouraged my friend, God loves you and wants to give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:3-5
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
