Admitting the Truth

Good Thursday morning! Oh my, ice on the windows, cold on the outside, it's like winter here this morning! Have you ever denied the truth of something in this life? Coming to the Lord to admit that I am wrong can be a tough thing to do. It can be especially tough when the wrong-headed thing has gone on for a long time. For some months and perhaps years now, I have told God that I didn't want to do something. I have repented in words and asked forgiveness, but yet I still say that I don't want to do this anymore. So why do I continue to do it?

First, I realized just this morning that a part of me does want to do this. You might recall the words of Paul in Romans 7 on this subject. Why did I think that I was better than the great apostle? I must first admit to God that a part of me does indeed want to do exactly what the spiritual part of me does not. C.S. Lewis defined three parts of man: the spiritual, the animal, and the diabolical. The animal is where the desires are for sex, eating, sleeping, and others that we call natural wants and desires spring from. The diabolical is that part that wants to rebel against God's law. The spiritual is the part that realizes that something is missing from us before we are saved in Christ. After salvation, when the hole in the spiritual is filled by God's Holy Spirit, the battle begins in earnest.

The animal desires are in themselves not good or evil. When the diabolical part of us teams up with the animal to produce adultery, fornication, gluttony, greed, and so on, we end up in sin. The spiritual can also team up with the animal and we can enjoy a social night with friends, have sex in marriage, earn money to provide for the family, and other actions that are not sin. The hard part can be admitting our imperfection to God and saying that we do have these animal desires the same as the sinner down the block does. I want to be perfect before Christ now! But I must come to God and admit that I am not.

Honesty in our prayers can be undermined by the diabolical in us. Admitting to God that I have the same animal desires and diabolical rebellion that everyone else does is the start of healing and cleansing. I cannot cleanse myself, that is the work of God's Holy Spirit, but admitting the truth opens the doors to those locked rooms in my heart that need the Spirit's cleansing touch. The diabolical nature in me where pride dwells might try to tell me that I am better than that, but God's word tells me that I am not better than anyone else. We all need the salvation of Christ and the sanctification of the Spirit!

Go with God today,

Bucky