Living In Denial
Galatians 6:8, “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
Morning friends! Praying this finds each of you starting a positive day! If you are feeling negative, pause, meet with Jesus for a few minutes in quality prayer time! Turn everything over to Him and change the day right now! Thoughts today are going to be about denial and anything that causes us to let it take over our lives. There can be two types of denial; one is “self” which is a discipline surrender to God but the other is harmful “living in denial” which means actually ignoring reality or sin. The Bible speaks of pretending that a wound doesn’t exist, which will prevent it from healing! Every one of us has been known to refuse to acknowledge that little sins aren’t a problem; that as long as it’s not a major sin, it is okay to keep doing it! Wrong; all sin is sin and we must stop the denying and face it head on! As born-again believers, we accepted a new way of life. Each of us are meant to gain self-control rather than letting our fleshly desires take over. Addicts of every sort, have more difficulty in stopping because they cannot face reality or their problems; their addiction hides those pains. They know it’s wrong but their bodies have caused their minds to tell their body they need that poison. Placing God at the forefront, and giving Him total control is the only way to beat those desires. Christ asked each of us to “take up the cross, and follow Him”; but have we really understood the “cost” of discipleship? Have we not understood that it’s the willingness to follow REGARDLESS of the cost? Giving up worldly pleasures seems hard if you look at it in your views and not in God’s knowledge. The Bible shows us ALL those whom He called and how each one had faults, had issues, had committed sin, had broken commandments; yet, they believed and trusted Him to help fight those demons, those urges, those worldly ways and became true disciples for him! Some of us can’t see the problem, feeling like, how can we face what we have so long been unaware of? Taking time to examine your hearts, truly studying your motives, desires and your SIN, is valuable to how your relationship with God, your discipleship can grow. As we begin setting our minds on Christ, we can start seeing the spiritual benefits that come when we stop denying and start relying on Him. Those little sins will become recognizable; your desire to lose them will become willing, then your life will exude with desires to please God. Life will become so much better once you begin living without denial!
Scriptures:
Read: II Timothy 1:7, Romans 1:18, Romans 12:2, Luke 9:23-27, John 14:15,26, Deuteronomy 28:47-48, Luke 10:27, Titus 1:15-16, Matthew 10:31-33, I John 2:23-25, Jeremiah 17:9-10, Romans 10:13, II Timothy 2:12, Acts 3:19, Galatians 6:7-8, I Peter 2:24-25, 1 John 1:9-10, Philippians 4:8-9
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank you for showing us our shortcomings, our denial of what sin really is and can do to us. Thank you, Father, for the Bible that flows with your knowledge that can help us to fight against the sins of this world; whether small or great. Thank you, Father, for your unconditional love that gives us strength in times of need. Amen.