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By John | June 4, 2009
From the Word: Anger and lust (from Matthew 5:21-30)
”But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court…but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:22,28 NASB)
Well, Lord, here we have issues in the heart! You put anger on the same level as murder, and You put lust on the same level as adultery. I confess to You both sins, Lord, sins of the heart and mind. I have been angry with a brother this past week, and I have allowed myself more than one look at an unknown woman on TV this week. In both cases at the time I didn’t think I was crossing the line, either into anger or lust, but I may have crossed the line for both. Even coming close to the line is too close; I must not allow myself the freedom to roam in my mind. Am I not aware of Your Holy Spirit’s urging? In either case was there an indication from You that I missed? O Lord, I confess to You not only these two specific instances (and to this point no one else was directly involved) but I also acknowledge my lackadaisical attitude toward my thought life. You reminded me last week about my blindness to my own problems.
O Lord, I pray for You to keep at it, to keep these issues front and center for me. How to trust You in this, Lord!? May I open myself all the more to the work of Your Holy Spirit in my life! I must acknowledge my sinful nature and tendencies, and do all I can not to give the devil an opportunity, to address these issues of my nature with the proper perspective! Thank You for this, Lord. Give me wisdom to know what You would have me do to ensure that these tendencies and temptations don’t take me where I don’t want to go. Tendency - my sinful human nature; temptation - the world around me and circumstances that appeal to and connect with my sinful nature. Thank You, Lord, for shining the light in this dark place in my life. O to see You - to be pure to see You! Purity is not the end, it is the means. I must pursue purity and righteousness not as ends in themselves, but because that is the only way I could ever hope to see You and to draw near to You. Amen. Protect me from myself, Lord.
Please pray with us:
20 years ago today (June 4) the Chinese government sent its military into Tiananmen Square where thousands of young Chinese had been peacefully protesting for greater freedom and democracy. There are no official statistics (and the Chinese government denies the crackdown ever took place) but it is estimated that thousands of demonstrators were killed and tens of thousands more arrested.
The current issue of World Magazine reports on some of the demonstrators who survived the massacre and their subsequent conversion to Christ in the wake of the event. (Click here to read the report). Let’s remember today the believers in China and the ongoing persecution that our brothers and sisters in Christ still endure there.
Thanks.
John
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Topics: In the Word and Prayer |