January 25, 2011
Greater Than, Less Than
I saw a recent news segment on diet companies that use packaged meals for their customers. The expert panelist explained, “These companies aren’t selling diet food, but rather they’re selling portion control.” I tried to wrap my head around buying will-power, but I realized that God too has a formula for portion control…it’s called the Holy Spirit. “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 Jn 4:4 NIV)
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Gail;
-----When I look at all the affairs and situations of my life, sometimes I can only laugh at myself, other times I just lament. I get so engrossed in dealing with whatever might be the present affair, that other important situations languish for the lack of my attention. I know this to be the heart of my messy nature - clutter around my desk, clutter around my home, and clutter around my mind. I’ve always given high regard to the need for self-control, yet I’ve been the first to admit that my sharp focus has everything to do with inner drive, and little to do with self-control. Otherwise, my life would have far more order.
-----I first heard my Pentecostal brethren espouse inner peace to be an evidence of the Holy Spirit’s directing of a decision. I then heard it from my Campbellite brethren. And the more I fellowshipped with brethren from various other churches, the more I realized the idea hadn’t merely risen from the Holiness Movement. In spite of its general attestation, contrary to its intuitive sense, I paid the idea too little respect and constantly opted for seeing His direction in lines of thought best assembled from Scriptural principles. And often, those lines of thought competed heavily with networks of emotions assembled from my own drives and ambitions. My resulting inner conditions were rarely peaceful. Oh, my! How could I deny the good sense of the Holy Word to have peace about what to do?
----My mind is still battling on the front lines of this conflict to take captive what thoughts the Lord needs me to hold. But on this battlefront, in the back of my mind, Galatians 5:22 is beginning to wrap around Romans 14:17. Self-control is fruit of the Spirit. In other words, when the Spirit is having His way in the frames of my heart and mind, drives and ambitions won’t run away with me beyond my ability to attend other matters that may have become currently important as well. Petty emotions won’t jerk me around; heavy emotions won’t capture me; petty thoughts won’t consume me; and trusted thoughts won’t form rigid walls. I love tax season because I have a huge bucket of work to do for a great number of clients who all relatively expect theirs to be done now. To be successful in my career, grasping self-control over personal drive during these three and a half months is paramount, because demands for my attention come from every angle at every moment. But far from being tumultuous, these three and a half months are a time of great peace to me. Rather than experiencing the frustration of working my situations like a one string guitar, I am forced to strike the more pleasant melody of a banjo. Having done so, the peacefulness of better order is a reprieve from the clumsiness of the other eight and a half months.
-----I do believe I, with the Lord, will win this mental battle. I am seeing peace as a systemic product of orderliness in stuff and in mind, an orchestration of affairs and situations by right principles from the Word, an accomplishment of self-control making one‘s life a more joyful melody of events. Right decisions are then much easier to see amidst the peace of the kingdom coming into the heart through the opened door of self-control.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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