Our family has been out of town and I have so missed being with you guys! When we arrived home I found some bananas that I left hanging on my banana rack, now un-peeled and hanging onto their peeling by a thread! Those bananas peeled themselves! As we study this week's lessons, we are going to be challenged to peel ourselves....to get to the root of some of our wrong thinking.

Hebrews 4:12 says it like this: ¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The Word of God cuts down to the root....if we can get the wrong root out, we can replace it with God's seed of truth.

Ephesians 4:22-24 ...."put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds"....

Have you ever thought about that for a bit? My fleshly, carnal perspective of my body (that my appearance, abilities, attributes, attitude, and assets give me my value and acceptance), my old self, is constantly being corrupted by my own deceitful desires. So, as the world we live in sends us the wrong messages, it appeals so greatly to our own fleshly desires!!!

1 John 2 says it like this: ¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

So let's do some self-un-peeling: what do you crave? what do your eyes lust after? what do you find yourself boasting about? Are they "appealing" to the life and ways of Jesus Christ or to the world?

If we are ever going to change our perspective about our body, we will have to peel back the layers of desires that drive us there and then set ourselves some boundaries to guard ourselves against those. In other words, if there are places I go, things I watch, things I listen to, that turn me toward those worldly desires, then I might need to stay away from those things. We might also need to begin finding God's truth in His word and memorizing His perspective about those things....

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you quickly when you are being drawn away to worldly desires (cravings, lusts, and boastings), and ask Him to help you have His perspective and only desire Him and His truth and only boast in Him alone. This will be so "appealing" to those around you, as they see Christ displayed in you.

0 comments