{Be Confident} Images, images Part 2 : Our biggest enemy

One decision at a time….

A lot of people think life will get easier when they become a Christian. But, I really don’t think it does. If anything, life gets harder.

Some of you are cringing because said that.

But it’s true.

When you really follow Jesus, it’s not unicorns & cotton candy.  And honestly, if it were, I don’t think many of us would actually buy into following Jesus.

Most of us crave more.

A lot more.

I mentioned before how deeply I fell in love music when I was in middle school. I didn’t only fall in love with it, it became something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  I didn’t want to be famous, I just longed to connect with people.  Journal entries became song lyrics because I wanted people to know they were understood.  I, too, wanted to be understood.

But if you remember, something happened. Something stole the gift that music was in my life.

That someone was me.

Let’s pause for a second.

We are our own worst enemies.

You know how I know?  Because I am my own worst enemy.

It starts in our thought process.

We fixate on things, don’t we?  We water false truths with wonder in our hearts, allowing them to take root and grow.  We allow ourselves to believe things that just aren’t true, because we’re longing to make sense of why something constantly feels like its missing.  A part of us is longing, its wrestling, and we just want that part of us to be a rest within us- to be at peace.

We long for purpose, we crave to be satisfied.

And let me encourage you, Christian.  Let me say this:  opposition means you are worthy of attack.  That spiritual battle you’re fighting- that mind game- it’s because something wants to distract you from truth.  Remember that.

That something is the sin within you.

Paul says it best.  He really does.  Paul was a religious leader back in Jesus’ day.  Being a religious leader, Paul knew all about Jewish customs and laws and he followed them better than almost anyone.  Then, something happened- Paul met Jesus.  Until that point Paul thought that he knew truth.  He thought that he was living the right way and doing the right thing because he was a good person. But Jesus doesn’t want us to be good people, (thats the unicorns and cotton candy) he wants us to be changed people and only Jesus can change a heart.

After Paul met Jesus, a change occurs in Paul’s heart and he couldn’t help but want that change for everyone.  Paul then, started to encourage other christians by speaking and writing letters to them- a ton of letters.  In a letter to the Romans, Paul wrote:

“ But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.” 

Romans 4:17-20 MSG

I can relate to that SO well.  Can’t you?!  In my addiction to bulimia I longed for change.  I longed for something more.  I thought I SO wanted to stop my addiction, but I couldn’t.  My best efforts seemed effortless.  My sin won every single time.  My thought process kept me sinning because I believed that change was up to me.

If change was up to us, we’d never get very far.

It starts in the heart.  Your heart is like the watering fountain to your mind.  You decide which thoughts to water, and which thoughts to abandon.  That’s your decision.  Christ has already decided that you are worth dying for.  He’s already decided that you’re of value.

And he is longing for you to trust him because he has more in store for you than you can ask or imagine.

Let’s go back to me and music.

I had a dream.  Music was my dream and there was nothing wrong with that.  But, I also had sin that kept me from attaining my dream.  God allowed my sin because his plans for my life far exceeded my own.  He knew that the root of my love for music was planted in the fact that he created me to glorify him through creativity and connecting to people.

Look at what I’m doing right now.

In more ways then one I get to connect to people across the world through writing.

I’m not writing songs, but I’m writing.

I’m not singing on a stage, but my heart is singing.

And God is so good, because he revealed to me the root of my heart issue, and asked me if he could uproot it from the soil of my heart.  That root, was my thought process.  It was my fixation, my belief that I would be satisfied if my outward appearance changed- that I would be of value if I was different.

What a lie.  I want you to spend this week reading Romans 7:14-25.  Then, go over to Psalm 84:1. Read it.  Know it.  Then, pray over this mentality…

The Psalmist writes: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord.” God does not rest in ugly places.  Therefore if the Holy Spirit is inside of you, you are a lovely place.

You are a lovely place.

Let that sink in, sweet friend.

If we really want to change the world, sweet friend, we’ve gotta let the creator of the world change our hearts.