A Daily Thought

I love writing the longer blogs and I have a few in the works I will be publishing soon, but I have so many daily thoughts that run through my head as well that I am hoping to begin writing some of those thoughts down and sharing them intermittently between the longer blogs.

Last night, I was reading in James, an amazing book full of what I like to call "spiritual 2x4s," those passages that hit you on the forehead with conviction. The end of James 4 states, "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." Not a convicting verse at all....or is it. What a powerful statement! Whoever knows that which is right to do, whoever knows what they should do and they do not do it, that is a sin...for them, even if the action in and of itself is innocent and sinless. How many times do we feel the Holy Spirit prompting us to do something and we push aside the promptings? How many times do we feel deep down inside what we are doing is not what the Lord desires yet we keep doing it? How many times do we act in ways we know we shouldn't, we treat people in ways we know are ungodly, yet we still do it? How many times do we worry and are anxious? Are there relationships we need to change? Are there people we need to encourage? Are there ministries we need to give to? Are there other avenues we need to be using our money, time, life? Are there family members in need and we push them aside? Are we spending time in activities that may seem innocent but the Holy Spirit is trying to convict us? What are those things in our lives that we know we should or shouldn't be doing? As innocent and sinless as the activities themselves may be, if we are know what is right and fail to do it, we fail to change them, thus we are living in sin. We struggle to do what is right because our mind and our body is constantly in battle, we desire to live for Christ but we live in the world. We want to be friends with the world, yet we shouldn't. The world acts and lives according to one journey and our journey is to be different. The world is weak with everyone looking and acting the same, and we are meant to be different and bold. A friend of mine posted this quote last week on their Facebook and it coupled with this verse is a powerful right-left hook to the soul: "Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things- in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself." (Mother of John Wesley)

Bathing those around me in prayer and intercession, may we all strive do do that which we know is right and pure.