No Spiritual Softness!

One day at work, I was having a conversation with Pastor Jon. I had used some hand-sanatizer and asked “Pastor Jon, do you ever use hand-sanatizer?” He replied, “No, if I use hand-sanatizer my immune system won’t have to work against bacteria and germs so it will begin to rely on hand-sanatizer to do the work for me. Then I will begin to get ‘soft‘. In the same way I need to be constantly fighting for the Lord, or sin will take over me and I will become soft spiritually speaking. So no hand sanatizer for me!” Now before I thought that was a rediculous answer to such a simple question, I thought how true his reply actually was! It was later when I began to question his hygiene.

 

Moving on to the basis of this blog we, those who call themselves Christians, need to keep up our spiritual immune system and need to continually be fighting sin! There are many passages of scripture that deal with such things, but first I want to take a look at Proverbs 6:10-11

 

10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
       a little folding of the hands to rest-

 11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit
       and scarcity like an armed man.

 

According to what Solomon is saying here, if we give in to any temptation to rest or to ‘take it easy’ look at what it says in verse 11, “poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.” And that is only if you give into a little sleep, and a little slumber. Even just a little bit, yes you will be ruined. So speaking from the analogy Pastor Jon was so nice to give earlier, if we were to give in to a little bit of letting our guard down of sin, so we can use the spiritual hand-sanitzer of relaxation or rest, our guard will get week, our spiritual immune system will get soft! When you get soft, you will have nothing to look forward to ‘poverty’ or ’scarcity’ as described in the passage above.

So instead of getting soft, those who follow Christ Jesus, need to be focused and keeping our spiritual immune system working and striving for one goal, which is God’s glory. Because if we don’t have this focus, this desire, we will get soft, and we will give in to using the hand-sanatizer of temptation and worry.     1Tim 4:8 reads-

 8For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

In some translations such as NASB, the word “training” can also be translated into the word “discipline”. And I really want to key in on what this word means. The defintion for discipline is activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill, and no where do you find the words ‘lazy’ or ’slow’ but instead you find such words as ‘exercise’ or ‘improving’ or keeping up with an ‘activity’. This is the only way to become spiritually strong, and keeping you spiritual immune system focused and destroying the sin in your lives, it is to always be enduring and staying focused and always moving towards a goal, because as it says in the passage above, yes physical discipline has some good benefits, but Godly discipline and Godly training of the immune system has value for both lives!  All this talk about working and striving and focusing, but what I we striving for? It makes it very clear in verse 10 of 1 Tim-

10(and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

We are doing this to reassure that we “have put our hope in the living God!”   We are doing it for God’s glory, and for nothing else. We have put our trust in Him, and out of gratitude we can’t let ourselves just fall into sin so easily, but we need to have one goal, one focus, and one reason, that is for God and God alone. So lets not get soft but stand firm in Christ!