When I finally decided that I was going to live for God, there were many changes in my life that I had to make. I had to let go of bad habits, let go of bad emotions, and let go of bad people. It was during this time that I found out the absolute difference between living for God, and living in the world. I found out that I could not do both-live for God, and live in the world (I definitely tried!)! The reason that I was unable to do both is simply because God is holy (meaning dedicated or consecrated, sacred). And there were many things that I took pleasure in that were unholy. These things included: lying, stealing, backbiting, full of lust, full of hell, etc. He instructs us that our bodies are his temple. "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19) So, what I was allowing within me, as well as, around me, directly affected how He was able to live in me. He is also righteous! So, I had to learn that if I wanted to be righteous too, (as He was) then I could no longer partake in unrighteous things. It was not an easy journey for me either! But, I knew that if I wanted to be used by Him, then I also needed to clean up my act, in order to be found in Him. I could no longer give way to the temptations that I was allowing to overtake me. These temptations included: lust, unforgiveness, jealousy, etc.
And I have to admit, as I was battling these emotions (in order to get myself right), there were many times that I told myself that I could keep a little bit of unholiness in one part of my life, but I could still praise Him in the other part. But, God quickly showed me that He does not accept half-praising Him. I mean, after all, He never half-blessed me! But, it was me simply trying to remain worldly in one area of my life, and Godly in the other half. And let me tell you, He did not politely tell me that it was impossible! He made it absolutely clear to me that it was impossible and unacceptable to do both! ! I suffered a HUGE consequence as a result of my arrogance or ignorance, even! And I would tell anybody, to be obedient to Christ in every way that you possibly can. Because, when we are disobedient to His clear instructions, we suffer a heavy price! So, as a result of what I had to endure (because of my own poor decision-making), I realized that it was absolutely worth closing all doors to the enemy. And I also realized that once I started closing all open doors to the enemy, He lost power over me, over my daughter, over my life! And with his loss of power, I saw God using me more and more, propelling me to the destiny, the purpose, that He had for me. It was during this time, I also learned that in some situations in our lives, the enemy does not necessarily bind us in that specific trap or pit, we actually bound ourselves in that trap or pit, because we refuse to give up what is unholy, unrighteous in God's sight. And in doing so, we give the enemy more entry into our lives, our world, than he ever should have had. And in this very lesson, I made up in my mind, that I would serve only one master-my Heavenly Father. And in that lesson, I learned to importance of not being lead me into temptation.
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