07/26/2023
Are we slaves to instinctive worldly reflexes... this is a recipe for instant sin, and an avenue for our inner person, the fallen man, to bypass our faith and intellect as his voice erupts from our mouths. Conquering this ancient sinful creature within each of us requires that we secure him in heavenly handcuffs and chains that only the Holy Spirit can bind him with.
“And he said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone."”
Matthew 15:16-20 ESV
A while back, I was having a rough day. I was hurting, and had been to the doctor's office where they were unable to pinpoint the source of the pain, and my mind was claiming the worst possible diagnosis. I had struggled through the remainder of the day at work, and with my wife babysitting my grandchildren for the evening, I was pulling into McDonalds to pick up a salad for a dinner alone.
As I entered the parking lot, there was a pickup truck trying to back out of a parking space, so I stopped to allow him to leave, thinking that I would take his vacated spot. As he cleared the space I began to pull forward when a car from behind me quickly attempted to come around me and pull in before me. I immediately saw red and my anger erupted! I would wreck my car before I would let that happen, and gave this interloper a piece of my mind as I continued on into the space. There was an open space next to this one, and the other driver swerved and pulled into it.
I have to tell you that I was boiling inside and was ready for conflict. The other driver was ready too, but when I jumped out of my car, his wife quickly emerged from their passenger's seat and, holding a baby in her arms, began to apologize for their behavior. She was nearly pleading. Suddenly I saw myself and was ashamed. I told her everything was alright, and my sinful self was suppressed once more. I looked into the angry face of her husband and walked on into McDonalds without confronting him.
The person that each of us was before meeting Jesus Christ lives just beneath a thin skin. It doesn't take much of a wound to free him, and the first eruption comes from our mouths. When this man tried to cut me off, I was saying things in my car that I am glad no one could hear... but I heard them, and they embarrassed me before the Lord. What disturbed me most was that I was ready to go to guns with someone over a silly parking spot when there was another open one right beside it. I was being prideful, and the young roughneck boy who had once defended himself on neighborhood playgrounds was about to surface in me and go into battle once again.
Have you had such an experience? Have you had something that should have been trivial and easily contained by your faith suddenly erupt into anger? Have you said things, in a moment of lost control that revealed to you just how thin the skin of your faith really is? Did it convict you?
I am reminded of a crowd that was about to stone an adulterous woman. They were angry and their inner selves had erupted from within them too, but Jesus calmly said... "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her" and the breach in each of them was sealed once more.
“And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.”
John 8:7-9 ESV
On that day at McDonalds, a young mother's plea for forgiveness spoke the words of Christ to me, and restored my faith. In embarrassment I turned and left this righteous woman standing before Jesus. Her apology had pulled me back from the abyss of sinful rage. My soul was reclaimed by Christ once more... and I had much to ask His forgiveness for. My prayers were full that night.
The first thing I needed to pray about was claiming the worst possible diagnosis for my pain... after all, that was the fuel that was poured into me prior to my outburst. I had prayed for healing, but didn't leave my situation in God's hands. I was allowing my fear to become greater than my God. This alone would take much more time on my knees to overcome. It was a lesson I thought I had mastered, but obviously had not. Then, I needed to pray about my tongue and the words of anger and pride that I allowed to spew forth. What came out of my mouth that day defiled me... it allowed my sinful self to have full reign over me. I also needed to pray for the man who attempted to cut me off; I prayed that Jesus would come to rule his life as well as mine, and finally, I needed to thank God for the woman, with child, that brought my faith alive once more. Her humble words had turned me away from the fallible law of human nature and brought me back to the perfect law of God.
When we face moments like this they shouldn't defeat us... they are spiritual lessons that teach us, and those around us, how to make the skins of our faith a little thicker. They should give us greater control over the sinful person who is bound up within each of us. We should pray and mull these lessons over for days, weeks, and years, as we perfect the mannerisms of Jesus that they have reawakened in us. We should contemplate the effect of a humble woman's words as she pleaded meekly for our forgiveness.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your forgiveness, and the frequent forgiveness voiced by your Son Jesus Christ. I thank you for the example you set for me. I thank you for the humility of a meek young mother I had never known, but who taught me, as Jesus taught the crowd, a lesson in faith. Holy Father, I ask that my spirituality be increased through this experience, and that the each time the prisoner within me attempts to break free, that my chains that bind Him will be made stronger. Give me rule over my tongue Father because it incites the old sinful crowd within me, and attempts to give your hard fought victory over my imprisoned self back to who I once was. Jesus, I thank you for the depth of your teaching, and the wisdom in your words. I thank you for turning first the older men, and then the rest of the crowd, away from sin as they prepared to stone the woman in our scripture today. As I stand before you now, an older man, the message in how the older men turned away first is not lost on me. Thank you rabbi for this instruction and revelation. I praise you for before the Father for this lesson, even as I lift up a young mother, a peacemaker, and call her righteous.
“Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, o the man I thought was banished forever are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.""
John 8:10-11 ESV
Rich Forbes