Romans 1:18-25 – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Ephesians 2:1-10 – “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Man’s nature, apart from God is to reject God, reject their Creator, reject His will for their life, and pursue whatever seems right to them in their own mind, or pursue the lusts of their flesh.  As men and women who are saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that nature is still present, but does not control us.  We are no longer in bondage to sin.  The question God has put on my heart and I submit to you, is “have I truly rejected pursuing my own will, and trust wholly in the God who loved me and died for me?”  So we can dispense self-righteous fecades-let me share that my own answer would be no.  There are a host of areas in my life that I’m still trying to control.  I’m single, I want to get married, so I try to make that happen in ways that aren’t always the most wise.  In my job, I try to take the reigns from God and make sure I do what I think needs to be done to get ahead.  I’m prone to default to my own comfort in situations rather than asking what God’s will is – even if the answer is difficult.  When I consider the anxiety I feel on a regular basis about life – it reveals what is important to me.  What are you anxious about?  What seems to matter most to you right now?  When I consider my own answers to that question, God challenged me with this passage from James 4:1-4 – “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?  You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.  You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  

For a while, I’ve attempted to take control out of God’s hands, and in the process I have made myself God’s enemy.  For someone who knows the richness of the love of God towards us in Christ Jesus, that is devastating.  Therefore, on the foundation of God’s Word, I’ve concluded this – whenever I seek my will, to control my surroundings even for what seems to be a good thing, like finding a wife, or doing a good job at work, then whatever gain I have is far outweighed by the loss of my fellowship with God.  Further, God will never bless whatever gain I obtain apart from Him.  

When I find myself in a situation like this though, I am comforted that God does leave His children to despair.  Immediately after James 4:1-5, we have the promise of God in James 4:5-10 – “Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?  But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”  Submit yourself to God.  Resist temptation.  Humbly turn to God to pursue Him, and He will exalt you.  This process is never fun.  It involves brutal honesty with yourself, and making tough decisions to follow Jesus above all else.  It means going to other men (or other women for women) to ask them to give you Godly counsel and follow it.  Simply put, when we do this, we are told to kill ourselves, our self-will apart from God.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian Martyr of Nazi Germany, said it this way – “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  If I proclaim the name of Jesus Christ as Lord (I do and hope all of you do as well), then for me it comes down to this – Am I willing to truly die to myself to pursue God?  In the words of Jesus from Matthew 10:39 – “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  If you are pursuing your own life with God has an afterthought, you will lose your life.  If you lose your life to pursue Jesus, you will find eternal life in Him.  I love each of you as my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I hope this finds you well, and God continues to work mightily in each of you, pushing back darkness and growing the Kingdom of God.

Grace and Peace,

Adam