Proverbs 3:5-8 ‘ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord , and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. ‘
In a world of self-empowerment, self-improvement, and self-satisfaction, a world I spent 44 years soaking up, and those who know me best, know about my ‘Be Better’ days. It was a time of inward reflection for me, where I was so focused on the smallest imperfections of my soul that I became an incredibly selfish person. Interestingly enough, the following year my focus shifted from ‘Be Better’ to ‘Be Self Less’. Yes I know selfless is one word, but I broke it apart to emphasize the action. In that year of being self less, Christ beat me over the head with a 2×4 and overnight I became reborn. A new person.
John 3:3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Everything the above Proverb is talking about is the process of being reborn. Complete and total surrender, giving it all back to God and trusting in Him regardless of what you as a person think, or what those around you think. He will make our paths straight, narrow, yet very straight. For wide is the road to destruction and narrow the road to salvation and eternal life. Few will take it.
Turning away from evil is to turn away from sin, which means to repent, to take an about face and to never sin again. Sin disconnects us from God. We are all sinners, a common phrase I hear a lot of Christians say which is very true, but by the power of our Lord through His Love, Grace, and Mercy we are given the gift of His dwelling within us through the Holy Spirit. Let’s not over complicate things..
1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.
Only Jesus was perfect, we still have ourselves to contend with, however, as 1 John 3 points out, once you are reborn, being born of God, sin no longer has a power over you because God is in you. We must put ourselves aside, we must decrease and He must increase. Through prayer and petition we as humans can achieve this. Don’t let religion or theology get in the way of intimacy. It’s the intimacy with Christ that Lights the way to the narrow path, that heals our flesh and refreshes our bones. Move away from inward focus, self-this and self-that and acknowledge the weakness of your own flesh, in this moment of weakness our strength in Him will be realized.
Freedom.
