Ephesians 2:3 says followers of Jesus used to be driven to live "in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind." Our desires are changed by the Holy Spirit when we give up on self-indulgence and self-righteousness and receive the gracious gift of Jesus' desires and life. So why do we still sin? Why is it still so hard to do what is right and avoid disobedience?
The essence of the problem comes down to re-training our bodies and our minds. Our sinful nature has done a real number on the way we think. We have learned to believe lies. We have been accustomed to not even monitoring the thoughts that fly through our heads throughout the day. We're too busy to meditate. We're too distracted to contemplate. We're too tired to work at identifying the lies we believe and replacing them with the truth of God's Word. We have developed some really bad habits in our thought-life. Yet that is foundational work in practicing resurrection, in living the new and different life that has been given to us. When Jesus talks about transforming us from the inside-out, it must include the re-training of our minds.
And our bodies have to be re-trained, too. The way we think gives momentum for how we will physically act. If I believe in my thoughts that it's okay to gossip, my body (primarily through my vocal cords, tongue, and lips) develops the habit of talking too much, too fast, and without considering the implications to others. Yet habits can be broken. The key is to fill our minds with the truth about gossip and the way our words can do damage, and then to practice some spiritual disciplines that will address how my body has grown accustomed to doing it. So then, the spiritual discipline of silence is a good place to start. This doesn't mean not talking to people ever again, but rather building in specific times of quiet and solitude in our schedules where we intentionally starve the urge to always have something to say about people and circumstances. It will feel strange. The breaking of routines and habits usually does.
Of course breaking the body and mind habit of gossip is just one example. There are also body and mind habits for greed, lust, hate, envy, and any other number of sins. In each case we need to identify the lies we believe that have under-girded those sins (often over the course of years), mentally reject them, and replace them with the powerful truth found in God's Word. Then we need to recognize how our bodies have developed physical habits that lead us back to those sins (even when we know the truth!) and practice spiritual disciplines that re-train our responses.
It's easy on paper, but hard in real life. It takes time, just as gaining proficiency in any new discipline does. Yet this is the pathway of discipleship in Jesus. Let's encourage each other along the way as we follow Jesus together!
No comments:
Post a Comment