Do It Yourself- My Utmost for His Highest Devotional

". . . bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . . —2 Corinthians 10:5


Determinedly Discipline Other Things. This is another difficult aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul said, according to the Moffatt translation of this verse, “. . . I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ . . . .” So much Christian work today has never been disciplined, but has simply come into being by impulse! In our Lord’s life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There was never the slightest tendency to follow the impulse of His own will as distinct from His Father’s will— “the Son can do nothing of Himself . . . ” (John 5:19). Then compare this with what we do— we take “every thought” or project that comes to us by impulse and jump into action immediately, instead of imprisoning and disciplining ourselves to obey Christ.






Practical work for Christians is greatly overemphasized today, and the saints who are “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity” are criticized and told that they are not determined, and that they lack zeal for God or zeal for the souls of others. But true determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature. It is inconceivable, but true nevertheless, that saints are not “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity,” but are simply doing work for God that has been instigated by their own human nature, and has not been made spiritual through determined discipline.






We have a tendency to forget that a person is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation, but is also committed, responsible, and accountable to Jesus Christ’s view of God, the world, and of sin and the devil. This means that each person must recognize the responsibility to “be transformed by the renewing of [his] mind. . . .” (Romans 12:2)."


I have to say that this was an amazing read this morning for my daily devotional. I hope that you guys are blessed as well.

source



Emotionally Promiscuous

I awake; my head hurts, the light is too bright.

What time is it? What happened last night?
All the events come back to me; I throw the covers over my head in shame.
I realized I have been promiscuous again; but not with my body, with my emotions.


This seems to be something effecting the youth in the church lately. We like someone, throw our emotions on them with our baggage and don’t even consider the fact if they want it. I know I have been guilty of it more than once. My emotions run ahead of me, filling my mind with daydreams and expectations; and suddenly it ends. You see them for who they are really or they are not as amazing as you imagined them to be and now you’re left with the aftermath. They return your baggage with a few additional pieces. I have even been guilty of emotional one night stands: you meet someone, you get along (you think you two “clicked”) and you proceed to imagine how you will tell your children how you met; only to never see or talk to that person again. And if you do see them again, the conversation or “connection” wasn’t as it was before.

What also makes emotional abstinence even harder is when we’re in relationships. We normally start out wrong; we date someone to get to know them when really we should be hanging out with each other and keeping the romantic aspect of the relationship at bay. If we keep our emotions in check, than we can keep our bodies in check. We need to think about relationships the way God intended, not the way the world does. In Romans 12:2 (KJV) states “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God”. And I can say the perfect will of God is not throwing our emotions at each other or giving them away so freely. When you look at that verse it tells us if we don’t think like the world and have our minds renewed we will know what is good, what is acceptable and what is perfect in God’s will. One thing that is good, acceptable and perfect in the will of God is: The Fruit of the Spirit Self-Control (Galatians 5:22-23, or temperance in the KJV).

Self- Control is defined by the dictionary as “the act of denying yourself; controlling your impulses.” In everyday terms you can define it simply as controlling yourself. In this day and age, denying yourself or controlling your impulses is unheard of. But that definition alone is part of being a Christian. When we accept Christ it’s all about denying those fleshy things that try to drag us downward and away from God and allowing the Spirit to reign in us and over our lives so we can walk and be led by Christ. So, to tie this in with emotional promiscuity, we need to practice ALL the fruits of the Spirit to be able to protect our heart but also to make sure we don’t act on “impulses” but act in accordance with the Spirit’s leading…..This entry took a lot longer than I planned, but I hope that this blesses you. As God reveals more of Himself to me and shows me where I’m coming up short, it makes me want to share with others because I know there are many of us willing to be set apart and stand up for Christ. Be blessed.