Oct 17, 2017 - 
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Uncategorized No Comments The Will
I have this habit of responding to things automatically without giving it much thought. It’s the way I’ve done life. It’s also the way I’ve done faith. Taking every thought captive and deciding its merit is a foreign concept; applying what scripture says is not what my flesh does. It’s so easy to hear and not do. Looking back over my life it’s quite annoying how disengaged I’ve been. I was listening to John Piper the other day and his subject was the bondage of the will. Martin Luther originally penned the thoughts; John delivered it in magnificent fashion. I’ll paraphrase what he said and as is my custom, wander somewhat off course.
We came into this world loving darkness. Darkness tastes good. Doing our own “thing” feels good. We love the praises and approval of men. We’re hostile to God. Submission is the opposite of rebellion and we are rebels. By nature, we are sinners. Half of the Ten Commandments have to do with God. On a good day we might be able to keep the ones that deal with our neighbor, but God? No way. You can’t love the God you, by nature, hate.
Ephesians 1-2 And you He has quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Where in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
Till we’re born again it’s impossible to pick up a cross and do what Christ did. Our flesh is born and then the spirit comes alive when we are saved. Jesus paid it all and to do the same is a fight with the flesh. The world around us won’t understand; they will hate us in some measure, at least that’s what the Bible tells us. I assume if everyone loves me I’m not being much like Christ.
Corinthians 2: 3-6 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Satan blinds the minds of men. Lost people can’t find the Lord on their own. It’s our job to ask the Holy Spirit to convict people of their sin and if they are converted, we are to nourish their faith in the finished work of Christ. God has foreknowledge of who we’re going to pray for. When we meet Him, He brings our reward with Him. He will already know what we have done or not done. Every morning there is a test, a challenge to my desire to please God. So I pray and I realize without Him I can do nothing.