Right Target

I was sitting here discussing the sins of a group of people with my friend. I then had the thought that we shouldn't target the sins, wondering how to be a good example for change. But instead, we should target their hearts.

I mean, trying to persuade outward change doesn't change their hearts. And if their hearts are not changed, then sin will spring up in an another place, or the same later on.

But then I turned the thought around, and pointed the direction to myself. I shouldn't target my sins, trying to erase them from my life(whether in my own power[obvious "no-no"] or in God's power). I should focus on my heart. After all, sins are only the outward manifestation of internal wickedness.

If I try to tackle, say, lying on the surface, then it will only reappear later on, or the internal wickedness will just bud a new sin. But if you, with only God's power, tackle your heart, then the fruits of your wicked heart will fall off the tree.

When your heart is changed, it will be much easier to rid your life of sin. A heart fully controlled by the Spirit means you are walking in the Spirit. And when you walk in the Spirit, you will not perform the deeds of the flesh.



Thanks to God for inspiring this post.

Pursuing a love for God.

Several posts have the theme of victory over sin. I'm amazed at how God adds to the main story of those posts. Let me briefly touch on things again from before.

The key to having victory over sin is a hatred for sin. In order to have a hatred for sin, you must have a genuine love for God. A love that will drive out all other loves.
In order to love God, we must experience His love. "We love him because he first loved us." If we don't know God's love for us, how can we possibly love Him?
In order to experience his love, we must abide in it. Jesus in John 15 tells us to abide in His love. He also explains how we can do it--by obeying His commandments.
To prove our love, we must also keep his commandments, as Jesus also said.

So, how do we love him? To abide in his love, there must be a desire to abide in His love. "We could ask God for a love for him," you might suggest.

But, our love for God doesn't fall onto our laps. We must pursue it. If it just fell into our laps, God would not have commanded us to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might." Loving God is active, not passive.

Your heart can be cold when you are keeping his commandments. You can close your heart to God and "obey" him. God may soften your heart through the various means of "obedience."

But a pursuit to love God will produce a desire to live for God, to obey God. And when we obey God with all our heart, we will abide in his love. And when we abide in his love, we will experience his love. And when we experience his love, it provide the possibility to love him. And when we love him with our whole hearts, the love for sin will go down the drain. (* Note at bottom) And when we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.


* Satan uses two tactics when he tempts us. One is to use something tantalizing. The other is to tempt us when opportunity exists. We can have the opportunity to sin, but if the sin isn't tantalizing, we will be able to resist Satan(after our process of submitting to God. James says to submit before he says to resist).

You can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens you. You will not sin when you are walking in the Spirit. Pursue a love for God.