22 November 2013

Know God

Don't just know about him. Learn to trust him. Spend time with him daily. This is the only way to fight temptation. Imagine a married man working late at the office one day when his secretary tries to seduce him. Whether he gives in to temptation or not has everything to do with the quality of his marriage. Temptation in our lives cannot be fought effectively by constantly thinking of our justification any more than a man can resist the pull to have an affair by trying to remember his wedding ceremony. By all means, let the fact of your marriage lead you to spend as much time with your spouse as possible but don't just repeat the mantra "I'm married! I'm married! I'm married!" in the face of temptation as it's one of the least effective strategies. No mantra will ever bring you success in fighting temptation. You must KNOW your spouse to be beautiful and worthy of your commitment and more enjoyable than any other woman. Being able to resist temptation has much more to do with your ongoing, day-to-day walk with Christ than with the fact that you once trusted him as your savior. Abiding in his presence day by day is so necessary to ensure the health of your marriage. Pursue him today. NOT in order to become better or fight temptation more effectively but because of your justification. Spending time with your spouse in order to resist temptation is absurd! It's such a dishonor to your spouse! You're effectively saying that if you spend enough time in THEIR presence it'll make you want to never have sex with anyone ever again. In the same way, spending time with Christ can't be used IN ORDER TO resist temptation. It's an insult to him. You're effectively saying that if you spend enough time with Christ, you'll eventually just be content to be joyless and depressed. Christ is in the business of increasing desires, not shrinking them.

And don't be content with head knowledge! Beseech God for heart knowledge. Because that's the only kind of knowledge that really counts in the end.

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