“Just… stop.”
The simplest things are some of the hardest and most difficult things to actually do.
I’m calling this message, “First Things First.”
I thought I was having a “struggle” with Jesus Christ.
Then I remembered, “In front of witnesses I was baptized by Roger Hermsen, therefore I have renounced my old ways and have an ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ, my struggle is NOT with HIM… it’s with… me.”
Then I asked, “How do I apply His ways to myself? When does He tell me what to do in a good way?”
And the Holy Spirit said, “First things first pal.”
And He showed me that the first thing to do was, was to actually “stop” doing what I’m currently doing or thinking that is sinful.
That’s the first actionable step we have to take.
And when we try to “just stop” and we fail, instead of feeling ashamed at ourselves for our weakness we can now identify it and humble ourselves to Christ and confess, “I can’t do it.”
Whether it’s alcohol; drugs; porn; actual random sex; adultery, or lying, cheatin’ & stealing… we can’t get to step 2 until we surrender… for real.
Step 2… is a doozy!!!
That is what is called “the step of faith.”
And I’ve found we can’t do first things first and get to step 2 honestly and honestly trust Him to do something about our problems when we don’t know what He said about it in the first place and the promise He attaches to that step of faith.
And our “brains” have some understanding of The Ten Commandments, and how we feel Sunday morning after a wild Saturday night, but our “brains” always want a bit more information.
See, that’s not faith.
We know IT SAYS “stop doing what you’re doing” and we sometimes say, “I’ll never do that again,” but we never place our feet on anything solid, we resist His pull that can get us unstuck from our own personal “muck & mire,” usually because we are ashamed of ourselves.
That’s what keeps us stuck.
The apostle Paul talks about not being ashamed in Philippians.
If we are honest with ourselves, like I had to be, before writing this, it is the fear of becoming ashamed that is the snag that keeps our butts on the couch instead of working on our next project i.e. my podcast.
But it was God saying, “I need to talk to you about your adulterous thinking.”
You know how I know that… I finally managed to drag myself down to the office, was led to Philippians, wrestled with myself in front of God, “going through the hell of renunciation,” as Oswald Chambers puts it, and it’s well below zero out right now at 12:43am and so the furnace is working hard to keep up…
Guess what I can’t do when the furnace is running… yep, record a podcast.
So now… “first things first”
The Emerging Man writing to Encourage you to take hold of the hand of Christ with grit and a firm grip!
theemergingman.com 