The Balance of Walking and Resting – Purity 827

The Balance of Walking and
Resting – Purity 827

Purity 827 09/03/2022  Purity 827 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the sun shining high above and
sparkling on the waters of Portsmouth Harbor in the United Kingdom comes to us
from a pastor friend who enjoys paddling and praying as he enjoys the glory of
God’s creation while being active noting that his aquatic hobby was “perfect
way to end the day” as we sail into :Labor Day Weekend.  Brits don’t celebrate Labor day so all the
more reason to make the most of a Friday afternoon by heading out paddling I
guess.  

Well, we don’t have to paddle to make it to the weekend
any longer, we made it! And as much as yesterday’s post was about taking care
of unfinished business, and I encourage that if you are able to put somethings
in order over the weekend, but let’s face it not only is it Saturday today, it’s
Labor Day weekend in the States and a lot of people and business have checked
out and won’t be doing anything until Tuesday, so I just wanted to say that it
is perfectly fine to just take a deep breath and “let it go” for the weekend
and rest! Big exhale…. And breathe in… Ahh. 

Okay, in order to maintain our peace and purpose on
the Christian path of discipleship, we need to try to establish balance. While the
path requires discipline, this walk isn’t just some legalistic attempt to do
everything right every single minute of every single day.  Because of God’s grace, the truth is that we
don’t have to work for our approval or acceptance. God loves us and accepts us
for who we are.  However, He does invite
us to follow Him into all He has for us so our faith isn’t stationary.

So another paradox of our Christian Faith, is as shown
in Mathew 6, is that walking or our (burden to follow) and resting.   

Matthew
11:28-30 (NKJV)
²⁸  Come
to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

²⁹  Take
My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls.
³⁰  For
My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Christ
didn’t want us to “labor” to be approved. Putting faith in Jesus, gives us
salvation! We can rest in the assurance that in Him we have new life.  

Christ
also wants us to rest from the burdens that the world, the flesh, and the devil
have put on us.  

The
burden we have to bear, which is comparatively “Easy” and “light”, is in living
out who we are in Christ and by forsaking the ways of the world.   The reason Christ could say the business of
repentance, turning to His ways, is “easy” or “light” is because our victories
are won by faith, by believing what God’s word says about us in Christ and
living according to our new identity in Christ, we can overcome.  

The
paradox of repentance of course is that, yes, we are in a battle or a struggle
to leave old patterns behind that will require discipline and a concerted
effort to change, but the battle is won not by the sweat of our brow but by the
mental, emotional, and spiritual acceptance of the spiritual reality that we
are new creations in Christ.    

The
renewing of our mind with the word of God, our volitionally setting our wills
on living out our new lives in Christ, and our mental and behavioral decision to
say no to our old ways of thinking and acting to live out who we are, are all a
part of the transformation process – that makes what has already happened to us
spiritually a living and breathing reality. 

In
this life of faith the Lord will bring new insights into how we live to show us
areas that we have overlooked that He invites us to change to lessen the burden
that the world, the flesh, and the devil are bringing to our experience.  The Lord’s goal for us is to be sanctified
and to enjoy the abundant life He has for us. His word encourages us to drop
every weight that is holding us down.  

So
as we go on this victory parade of increasing freedom, we will discover that
there are new challenges to face and victories to win.  But we have to address the challenges in a
balanced way. We need to persist but not burn out.  

As
much as I am geared up about the latest challenge in my life to resolve the
last remaining problem from my divorce, I have to be patient and realize that
this could be a long process before things are finished. So instead of keeping
it at the forefront of my mind and stressing over it, I have to recognize when
to “let it go” but at the same time be determined to not quit.  

Balance,
right?  I am formally, and may still be
to some extent,  a person who goes to
exteremes.

Oh,
Let’s get this taken care of?  Okay, LET”S
FIGHT! TO THE DEATH! NOW! NOW! NOW!

Oh
let it go? Okay, no problem, let’s just quit. I didn’t want to do it
anyway.    

As
you can see, there has to be an “in between”. 
We need to stay true to our convictions to resolve our conflicts or
change our behaviors but at the same time be able to have peace and not so much
peace that we decide to give up the cause and remain in bondage to the things
we overcome.   

So
examine your situation and see what you can do, and whether or not it is a time
to press in or it is a time to rest.  This
fluctuation between walking and resting is a key the path that leads to progress
and victory.  We work at it and give
ourselves periods of rest to maintain our peace and to eventually accomplish
what we set out to do.  And every step of
the way from here to there, we stay in the presence of the Lord to receive His
love, comfort, guidance, and strength.  

Our
Christian life isn’t just a set of battles to be won or a list of things to
accomplish. Our Christian life is a relationship with God where we abide in His
presence and seek to please Him and ourselves by accepting His wisdom and will
for our lives.   

So
it’s Saturday and Labor Day weekend. You know your situation better than I do
but some basic options for the next couple of days are:  take care of business, enjoy the last blast
of summer before school starts, or just rest.  
Of course, you could come up with a balance of all three but I will only
suggest you keep walking and talking with God and work that out for
yourselves.  

—————————————————————————————————————

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible
Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

James 5:16 (NLT2)
¹⁶  Confess your sins to each
other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of
a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

Today’s verse encourages us to confess our sins to one another and
to pray to be healed with the assurance that the earnest prayers of a righteous
person has great power and wonderful results.    

There is really so much to say about this short verse. 

First, why do we have to confess our sins to each other since we
have been forgiven of our sins by putting out faith in Jesus?  

Well, that’s why we keep reading, the verse tells us to do that
and to pray, so that we may be healed.  

And of course there is two ways to go with that!

We could be “healed” of our sin, meaning our confession and prayer
could lead to genuine repentance and victory as we are set on a course to never
repeat the sins we have committed.  This
is a possibility. We are not condemned to continue in our sins. Romans 8
confirms that we have been set free of the power of sin and it really is up to
us to believe that and live according to it. We can be “healed” of our sins, specifically
and progressively.  Believe this.  Don’t worry after you have victory over one
set of sins, you will discover others work on.  

We could also be “healed” physically as some diseases are a physical
consequence of our sin or a chastisement from the Lord for sinning.  

The sin of addiction to alcohol, aka drunkenness, has the physical
consequences of hangovers. If we confess our sin and pray for healing, we could
receive the strength and motivation to stop drinking and be “healed” of our
addiction and all the aches and pains that come from it.  

Also if God is allowing disease to come into our life, granted in
ways we don’t understand, and we confess, pray, and repent, God can allow healing
to come into our life. 

On this note, God is our creator and His sovereign will is done in
our lives. No one gets sick and dies on God’s watch without His approval.  Why does medicine work for some and not for
others?  I don’t know but God does. So because
of God’s role as Creator and His sovereign will, all healing comes from Him. So
pray for healing.  

Did you know according to Crossexamined.org, 75% of doctors
believe in miracles?  It’s because they
have seen things that defy science that they can’t explain. So if you get sick
confess your sins and pray.  If nothing
else, you will receive a guilt free conscience and peace as you face your
health crisis.

And that’s where the “righteous person” has great power, in
their harmonious relationship with God. 
Not for nothing, but as I have become a Christian and continue to keep
short accounts with God by confessing my sins periodically and stay in constant
communication with God through prayer, and walking and talking with God, some
pretty amazing things have happened in my life.  

So while we may not receive everything
we want in prayer, when we live a righteousness life of faith in Jesus Christ,
we will see the goodness of God in the land of the living and wonderful results
from our life of faithfulness.  

So don’t look for some “righteous
person” to pray for you, become that righteous person by confessing your sins
to others and by praying to God to be healed.

 

______________________________________________________________________

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from Clinton E. Arnold’s
“Powers of Darkness”

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage all to purchase Clinton Arnold’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on
many websites for less than $20.00.

Conclusion:
Contending with the Powers

In the last three
chapters we have examined the reality of the powers of darkness and seen how
they operate. It now remains to consider how to respond to these hostile opponents.
Frequently Christians have turned to the Gospels for learning how to detect
demonic influence and how to deal with it (based on the exorcism accounts). I
have attempted to show that the apostle Paul’s letters also speak to this issue
in a relevant manner. Here is a suggestive summary of the relevance of Paul’s
teaching on the powers of darkness stated in a prescriptive way for the church
today.

Re-evaluate Your
Own World View in Light of Scripture

Many
evangelicals remain skeptical about the actual existence of the powers of evil.
For some an overly narrow theological tradition or an atmosphere of doubt in
their churches perpetuate disbelief. For everyone the skepticism can be traced
to the constraints of our rationalistic post-Enlightenment age.

Although my own early
theological nurture and training was not in a church (or a theological
tradition) that denied the real existence of the powers or their work in
day-to-day experience, my secular education, the influence of my peers, the
media and many other sources have had their effect on my views in this area. It
has taken a concerted effort on my part to rethink reality apart from the world
view I inherited from society.

What is your
perception of reality? Does it include the conviction that evil spirits are
working behind the scenes to promote evil, or do you think of evil in purely
abstract terms? To what extent do you see the powers of darkness at work in
prompting lust? In influencing thoughts? In sickness? In church strife? In the
exploitation of the poor? In civil unrest and war?

Having opened the
door to sensing the reality of the demonic and seeing its influence on many
levels, we need to sharpen our sense of discernment. We need to avoid the
“swing of the pendulum syndrome”—that is, the tendency to move to the opposite
extreme. We should seek a balanced approach to life and ministry. For instance,
not every sickness can be attributable to direct demonic attack; it may
represent merely the natural constraint of possessing a decaying body that is heading
for eventual physical death.^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship