Stop and Think

In elementary school, I was that kid that kid in class that never seemed to pay attention. I was either tapping my pencil on the desk or the person in front of me or I was doodling in my notebook. When I was in third grade, my teacher told my mom that I had ADHD. Subsequently, my mom decided to have me start to go see someone to try to deal with my inability to keep focused in any classroom setting.

Looking back, there were a lot of things that I disagree with. But, one of the things that she drilled into my head was, “Stop and think.” I got so tired of hearing her say that all the time. She wanted me to be in the habit of periodically stopping what I was doing and evaluate whether or not that’s what I should be doing. One good opportunity to use this strategy would have been when I was draining the ink from my pen at the back door where our dog liked to jump and let us know she wanted in. But, I didn’t. Several good opportunities would have been over the summers when I was terrorizing my sisters while my parents were at work. My sisters will definitely vouch that I didn’t take those opportunities. The list of missed opportunities could go on and on... and on. But, if I had, what illustrations would I have for my posts?

A few weeks ago I got together for “coffee” at Starbucks with my pastor, Scott. Neither of us had coffee. He probably had 10 cups before I got there and I didn’t really feel like pumping a ton of caffeine into my system at 9pm. Those of you who know me are probably thinking this is moot because you know I’ll probably be up all hours of the night anyway. You’re right. But, why make things worse.

We started out with small talk. He asked how Ben was doing and I gave him the update. We then talked about the Millennial Kingdom for a bit and he gave me some good things to think about. After that, our conversation moved to sin and sanctification.

The Lord has really been at work in my life and has been teaching me a lot, especially through recent circumstances. And, the Lord has been giving me a lot of victory over temptation to sin. There have been several times where temptation has come into my life and I’ve been so overcome with worship that I didn’t even desire the sin. There have been other times, however, where the temptation has been tough and I’ve had to grit my teeth, dig deep and press on. After a while, that can very tiring. It feels like I’m barely getting through it by the skin of my teeth. Sometimes even that can seem discouraging. I’m not expecting the war over the flesh to be a bed of roses, but seriously, does it have to be this hard?

He talked about the three types of people who are facing temptation. First, there is the guy who says to just give in because it’s going to happen anyway. Second, you have the pharisee who doesn’t sin because he afraid of punishment and pride. Lastly, you have the man who loves the Gospel. He chooses not to sin because he understands that the Gospel: Jesus, is so much better.

With the first guy, his heart remains unchanged. The second guy’s heart is only restrained, and for all intents and purposes, still unchanged. The third guy’s heart, however, is changed by the Gospel. I’ve realized that for a long time I was the second guy. But, God isn’t glorified because a guy chooses not to sin because he’s scared of what will happen to him if he sins. God is glorified when man chooses not to sin because his heart has been changed by the Gospel through faith (Hebrews 11:6 - “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.”).

Through much of our lives, the pharisee mind set is drilled into our heads. We didn’t lie to our parents because we were scared of getting in trouble. We obey the law because we fear going to jail. Now, we’ve translated that into our walk with God: We resist sin because we are afraid of judgement and condemnation, or we don’t out of pride (Look at how much I’m living for God.).

The reality of it is, our judgement and condemnation has been taken on by Jesus Christ through His work on the cross if we have put our faith in Him to redeem us from our sin and made Him Lord in our life.

Romans 8:1 "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death."

Unfortunately, in many cases, I still find myself in a position of just restraining my heart. How do we change this? How do we get ourselves out of this pharisaical mind set? Through regular “check ups”, as Scott put it. We regularly stop and think: What is my motivation? Am I treasuring the Gospel? Do I not sin because I fear retribution from God or a condemning stare from other men or because I love Christ more than that sin? Do I love and live out the Gospel?

The reality is, resisting sin because our heart is merely restrained and not changed is not really much of a victory at all. God is still just as displeased with the state of our heart just like he was with Cain in Genesis 4. True victory comes when we realize that the joy of being united with Christ, being in fellowship with God and having the Spirit dwelling inside is so much better than anything any sin could ever offer! We taste and see that God is good (Ps 34:8) Because of that, I desire to please God; not because I’m afraid he will do something bad to me. As John Piper so often says,
“GOD is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.”