Victory
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:56 pm
I have been listening to Steve's messages on The Narrow Path on my laptop. I am remodeling our house and I listen to the messages as loud as the poor speakers will go. There are no shortage of interseting topics. I could not escape, the "How can I tell I'm really saved" series. It is AMAZING! I too struggled with "self-gratification" since adolescence. I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was 19 and was the person who walked away when tempatation and the troubles came. Two years ago, when I was 44, I invited Jesus into my heart for good, this time. The "struggle" continued. Through listening to the messages, and daily fellowship with God, I worked out that I was like Steve was saying, "I liked to sin". I put myself into situations or looked in the direction of things that would titillate me. Then I would dwell on it until I squeezed God out of my conscience, then I would sin and confess. It wasn't until I realized that Jesus was not just my Savior but my LORD, that I got victory.
God showed me through my relationship with my wife, who is also a Christian, that his relationship with me is similar. I love her and I would be offended if she daydreamed about other men all day. Even if she never acted on her thoughts, she wasn't thinking or dwelling on me. I was forced to see that that was I was doing to Him. I was dwelling on things that satisfied me and not on those that satisfy God.
Somewhere between "How do I know If I'm really saved" and "Purity" it just happened. One day when the tempatation came, it went away in a flash. I do not want to do it. The desire is gone.
I think of it like this. Once you become a Christian, you are like Adam and Eve. You have everything you need and you have God with you. I'm not sure how they communed with God, per se, but for my analogy I assume that since he could walk in the cool of the day, he wasn't dwelling in their hearts but right there with them. Anyway, when Eve was tempted, she would have had to call out for God's help, and she didn't. We have it easier. He dwells in our heart. When we are tempted, we don't have to go find him or ask him to come help us, he dwells in us. In order to sin, we have to take an even more active role in removing him or ignoring his presence. This makes us sinning a very deliberate thing. I can not do that to my Lord.
Thank you Steve and thank you Narrow Path!
God showed me through my relationship with my wife, who is also a Christian, that his relationship with me is similar. I love her and I would be offended if she daydreamed about other men all day. Even if she never acted on her thoughts, she wasn't thinking or dwelling on me. I was forced to see that that was I was doing to Him. I was dwelling on things that satisfied me and not on those that satisfy God.
Somewhere between "How do I know If I'm really saved" and "Purity" it just happened. One day when the tempatation came, it went away in a flash. I do not want to do it. The desire is gone.
I think of it like this. Once you become a Christian, you are like Adam and Eve. You have everything you need and you have God with you. I'm not sure how they communed with God, per se, but for my analogy I assume that since he could walk in the cool of the day, he wasn't dwelling in their hearts but right there with them. Anyway, when Eve was tempted, she would have had to call out for God's help, and she didn't. We have it easier. He dwells in our heart. When we are tempted, we don't have to go find him or ask him to come help us, he dwells in us. In order to sin, we have to take an even more active role in removing him or ignoring his presence. This makes us sinning a very deliberate thing. I can not do that to my Lord.
Thank you Steve and thank you Narrow Path!