Written by: Caitlin
This is an article written by a sweet friend of mine. Enjoy!
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.”
Psalm 119:9
"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
Luke 16:13
“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
Galatians 1:10
As a warning beforehand, this is going to be a completely honest article. Often when many of us Christian girls get together to talk of purity, it is easy for us to get on a high horse about the subject. Let’s not look down our noses at sisters who appear to be struggling, let us be honest: we are all struggling no matter where we are in life! No matter how many pledges we sign, rings we put on our fingers, groups we join, no matter if we even avoid the company of men entirely-temptation finds a way to creep in. Even if we maintain a physical purity, can we honestly say, when we examine our hearts, that we are truly making the best efforts possible to guard them?
Often times, when I look at my heart, I feel like the psalmist, as in regret he exclaims:
“Thus my heart was grieved, And I was vexed in my mind.
I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.”
Psalm 73:21-22
What a struggle it is for a young woman to guard her heart against the dreams and hopes that allude to romance. How easy it is to say with our lips that we stand for chastity, while in our hearts there rages a desire to find acceptance in the eyes of men. Who can’t deny enjoying the sensation one receives upon realizing you have a man’s attention? Yes, I want to be cherished! I want to be sought after, I want to be thought beautiful! If we look at so many of the things we do on a daily basis and examine them closely, how many things would we find that we do in the name of the Lord, but for the approval of others? Or, namely, just to be noticed by guys? I can think of words that I have said about purity of all things, that truly, I only spoke so someone would think I was some righteous goody tushu, who would make the perfect 50’s housewife.
I can only speak for myself on this. It is as though I serve the Lord with a secret agenda, as if I think, “If I keep putting the right amount of change in the coke machine, eventually I’ll get what I’m wanting soon enough!” I will read every Joshua Harris book, study my Bible, seek to adorn myself with modest apparel, and all the while say I’m honoring God. I’ll say I’m waiting to date, waiting for God to open up that door, contenting myself in the relationship I have with Him, and am in no hurry to seek a romantic relationship at all. Yet within, my flesh screams: “When is it going to be time Lord?! I’ve been waiting, I’ve been doing what you ask, when are you going to give me what I want?!” And here lies my problem. What do I want? Do I really want to be fulfilled in Christ Jesus? Or, do I do what I think He wants of me, in order to achieve what I think will make me happy?
In the back of my mind, the Spirit tells me how wrong my thoughts are. My heart groans; I want my relationship with the Lord to not be so! It is here that the words of Paul come to mind:
“For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” Romans 7:15-24(NASB)
What would our lives look like, if we could view our flesh as God sees it? To utterly, despise it?
“Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.” Colossians 3:5-10(NASB)
In our hearts, we often have our ‘old man’ rising up, trying to gain dominion over the ‘new man’ we have received in Christ. We believers, are sealed in Christ. We belong to him, and by His grace He is daily transforming us. Daily leading us to see which passions we have clung to, that aren’t the fruit of His will. He has triumphed o’er those things which held us captive before, put to death the power that ‘old man’ had over us, and given us a new life in Him. I am a new creation, Christ has given me a new identity. Nevertheless, that ‘old man’ wants me to think he still has power. He wants me to think that I really can’t be free from him, that I have to just ‘put up’ with his ways. He wants me to think:
“I’ll always struggle with this, it’s just who I am. I’ll just go on doing the best I can, while knowing that this trial will always be a part of my life.”
What an awful lie to buy into! Yet how easy it is to convince oneself of this. We have become so accustomed with the way our society cheers for a woman to seek out the attention of men, that we can hardly imagine living any differently. How humiliating a realization it is, when we come to grips with how deceitful we truly are. How extremely humiliating when we realize the many ‘good things’ we do for the wrong reasons, as well as the many times we judge our spirituality by what other’s think of us, rather than what God thinks of us. How sad a realization it is when we see how we have empowered the old self to reign in our lives, and even influence the areas in which we think we were trusting God with. It is frustrating to no end! How can it be overcome? When faced with these truths of myself, I feel like echoing the words of Shakespeare: “Get me to a nunnery!”
So, what are we to do? Is running off to France and joining a convent really the only escape? I doubt it. Under that delusion I can easily see myself fancying finding true love with a monk from a nearby monastery, or being whisked away to care for a handsome widower’s children who stole my heart as he sang ‘Edelweiss’. (See how wily women are?!) Isolation isn’t the answer, even; though sometimes I wish it was.
Through a sermon that was preached at our church last Sunday, I believe God has given me a mindset in which to view this circumstance in a way that will enable me by Christ’s power, to resist this ‘old man’ when he tries to rise up. What would it look like, as I said before, if we could view our flesh as God sees it? To realize it is dead, old, and decrepit. To view it as an adversary. No longer as a part of who we are, but something that despises who we have become in Christ. Something that covets our relationship with Him, something that wants to take the rug out from under our feet and laugh at us as we lay on the floor in confusion in bewilderment. Something that wants us to doubt the freedom and assurance we have been given in Christ!
Recognizing a temptation as an enemy rather than a part of our makeup, enables us to deal with it as an enemy ought to be dealt with. Christ has given us the power to overcome, though how much we desire to be free from these things is up to us. Will we let something so weak and powerless, reign in our hearts? Upon feeling the temptation to act out according to the old man’s character, I pray God gives us the strength to be filled with rage. May we turn to Him in those times, fully conscious of His power keep us safe. Turning into His embrace is like charging a sword into the stomach of our adversary.
Earlier, I quoted Psalm 73:21-22, though there is more to this passage that I would like to share.
Psalm 73:23-28 :
Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? and besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.”
In the two verses prior to these, the psalmist expressed his disdain for his circumstance before the Lord, referring to himself as foolish, and a beast. Yet afterward he proclaims: “Nevertheless I am continually with You; you have taken hold of my right hand.”
God was never away from him, even during his folly, God was near. How sweet a thing to remember! When we act out of our ‘wily ways’ God does not shake his head and say, “You’re on your own here, I’m too holy to be with you when you act this way. Let me know when you get everything straightened out…” God takes us by the hand when we are utterly beastly. When we have gone whoring after idols, He takes us by the hand amid our very shame, counsels us, and receives us unto glory.
I pray for myself, and my sisters as well, that we would be so utterly filled with love for Him, that the romantic idols our fancies seek after so often would fall to dust when we view them in light of His greatness. May He give us humility to see where we have fallen, and the strength to turn to Him in realization that only through His power, can we overcome.
It is also my prayer that we can encourage one another in this area, and be honest with each other amid our struggles. It is such a liberating feeling to share your heart with a trusted friend. Not only will your friendship deepen, but your eyes will be opened to areas in your life that need to be changed as you seek honesty with your sisters in Christ. Let us lift one another up in love for our King, and truly desire to be filled with Him. Not so we can snag a ‘righteous’ help meet along the way, but wholly for the sake of fulfilling what we were created to do; live for God.
Through a selfish mindset, it seems hard to imagine that surrendering our romantic ideas to Him could be more fulfilling. Here, we truly need to ask ourselves what it is that we want; fleeting moments of excitement? How many relationships have we made for the sole purpose of self-gratification? It’s a scary thought.
So often when we try to define purity, we talk of it in the context of guy/girl relationships, and it seems like this is the first place where we go wrong! If I am vowing to be pure for the purpose of honoring someone who struggles with the same things I do--if my sole purpose in striving for purity is to please another human, I think I need to re-evaluate my priorities.
Before I was given the name daughter, sister, friend, ect, my identity was with Christ. I belonged to Him before any earthly person had any claim upon me, and this still rings true today. How can we endeavor to do good things in the name of sinful people? If I ever was to marry, I would pray that whomever God brought into my life would desire me to seek God’s will more than my will, and his will. I pray for a desire to do good, to pursue purity, because my God is pure. Anything that tests my integrity threatens the unison of my walk with Him. How could I ever dream of fulfilling God’s will, if I am doing the things He desires of me for someone other than Himself?
May purity, modesty, humility, and all those traits we so desire to own, be a natural outpouring from hearts that care more for our Creator’s concerns, than the world’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment