self, serpents and orbs...oh my. 01/19/2010
 ...and lemons, too... I've been thinking about our sin nature this morning. More specifically, our ease in despair. Or at least my own effortless decline into doom and gloom. For a girl who has eternal hope in her Savior, I sure can sink into self-fulfilled hopelessness. Self-involved. Self-centered. Self-entitled. Self-loathing. Self.ish.ness. I suppose that's really what being so fixated on oneself is at the root. Being all about self doesn't allow much room for hope. I get it--spiritually, logically--I get it. Now, if my heart and mind could only send my silly flesh the memo... As I sat sipping my room temp coffee, every harsh word ever spoken to me seemed to swim around my mind in some sort of violent current, ripping at my very soul. Ripping at, never out. The enemy just isn't that strong, and he only gets weaker with each moment we stand in the presence of our almighty God. Still, how can something so powerless have so much power over me? Over us? At first, that question repeated among the daggers of deflation that would have me reduced to a heap if I let them. It was more a statement of surrender than an actual question, truth be told. The Holy Spirit, He has come to dwell in me {and in you, sweet sister} for many reasons. As my declaration of defeat echoed in my head, the Spirit spoke out to prove my self wrong about sin. and righteousness. and judgment. "And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned" (John 16:8-11, NRSV). Suddenly, I began to actually ask myself how something so powerless could have such power over me. Over us. I saw a serpentine covering wrap itself tightly around my entire person. Twisting and constricting and holding every bit of goodness trapped inside. Every righteous desire, bound by this serpentine flesh concoction that had replaced my skin. My claustrophobia began to kick in, my heart began to race in its place, and my palms began to sweat. Before my automated response to such binding {even socks make me nervous} had a chance to move past the beginning stages, I saw something else. A light began to shine from inside the flesh that would squeeze the life out of me. This solid orb of growing brilliance shone so intensely that the serpentine covering couldn't keep it under wraps. The Holy Spirit can't be kept under wraps, sweet sister! "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4, NRSV). When the devil wants to make lemonade out of your very being, remember our God created the lemon! The enemy can't create a thing, so he uses everything he can to build himself up. Don't be deceived! I love you, SonShine. You give me a reason to look beyond myself and see the truth. Thank you. Let the Son shine,  |  {make what's old, news again}   Loading
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