Wash Your "Buts!"
Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the word,
Ephesians 5:25, 26 (KJV)
Ever go through a period of knowing what pleases God yet not really wanting to do that thing (or, let that thing go)? Well, welcome to the club. We all struggle from time to time with disobedience. We often do know what is right-BUT we have excuses.
We may even feel good about ourselves for not committing some of those "basic" sins (i.e. adultery, lying, cheating, stealing, etc.). But what about when we need to go out of our way to have that conversation we really don't want to have-like asking forgiveness? "BUT I was not wrong," we say.
Or, maybe there's a nudging to give more than we'd planned. "BUT I need it more," we reason.
For a while, we may not know what God's will is on a matter. Then, like Paul, there's a blinding light and we want to say, "Not so, Lord," rather than change our way of thinking. "BUT God understands!" we console ourselves.
Whether we're aware of it or not, all such stubbornness and disobedience (yours and mine) is rooted in a lack of faith in God. I once heard that God's people would be much more obedient to His Word if we truly believed that:
- God knows more than us. - God loves us more than we love ourselves.
Why else would we resist His known will? We either don't think God knows what He's doing, or we think He is out to mess us up.
What are we to do? We've got to have our minds cleansed with God's Word so we can better know:
- Who God is.
- That God really loves us.
In this sense, brain washing is good.
Psalm 119:9 states that we can be cleansed by taking heed unto God's Word. Let's let God's Word wash away all our objections so that instead of saying, "BUT God," we will say, "Yes, Lord."
God knows so much more than we do AND He cares for us more than we know.
