Recovered In Christ

Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!! Here is a  beautiful post today that came from one of my closest friends – the most solid Christian man I know, Chris P.

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

Who Owns Your Heart – You…Or God?

“I” don’t want to fall into the same sin, over and over and over again. So why do “I”? I tell myself that “I” hate it, “I” tell everyone else that “I” want to change, yet “I” fall back into it, again. “I” repent after “I” do it, “I” tell the Lord that “I” want it to be removed, “I”  promise to never do it again. But “I” do it, again and “I” find myself in the same position with the same poisoned mind and polluted heart. Why do “I” still have an attachment to it? Why do “I”  long for it, like “I” long for the Lord – can it be true that “I” want both the light and the darkness at the same time? Is it possible to love the Lord with all my heart and yet still search for certain parts of  “my old self”, those parts that “I” used to call my God.

There is no “I” in the true Spirit of God. In God there exists a comforting peace that “I” can’t create, or will myself into. But in me, “I” find all things to the contrary and they will always lead me astray – that is the promise and the reality of what “I” find, in the dark. Who am “I” to think that “I” can remove what “I” hate and what my Lord despises? How could “I”,  when deep down, in my flesh “I” desire both, for when “I” turn to me, “I” drop an anchor into my flesh and it takes a hold and so desperately wants, what is wrong. Is that what “I”  practice over and over, giving my heart to God only to take it back when I want? I call desire into action and it pollutes my heart. Didn’t my loving Father give me free will? Can’t “I” have it back, just for a minute of carnal pleasure, just for a minute of anger, just for an hour of deceit, just for half of a day in lust, just for an entire day of fear,  just for a weekend of delight? Is there any part of “me” that “I” can reclaim, for any part of my time left on this earth? “I” can and “I” will, because we are all sinners in heart, body and mind. But if  “I” continue to take back what is “not rightfully mine”, then I will never truly experience Christ.  Yes, we came from the Father, He made us from the earth, our flesh came from dust, and it will return to the dust, but our spirit is eternal, if we have accepted Christ as the one and only redeemer. In Christ we find the life that we have always been seeking.  The new life in Christ protects you from the flesh, if you completely turn away from the “I” in your life.

Has anybody ever given you something, and then they come back to take it away from you, because they have changed  their minds and they want “it” back? How about when someone promises to do something for you and they don’t do it? Well…that is exactly how God feels when you try and take back what you have promised to give to Him. The difference is, it was never yours to claim in the first place. Who are you, to think and pretend that you own, any part of your heart? That action of thinking and pretending always leads down the same path of despair and destruction. You must return your heart to its rightful owner, you must give up all your free will and give up the absurd notion that you have the freedom to choose parts of “I” … and still live a healthy life. For God will not be mocked and his son did not die on the cross, for any part of the “I” to be left for “you” as an option.

God Bless

Chris P.

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” (James 1:12-18)