"How Ba-a-a-ad Can I Be?"
#1 Our old selves can feel so comfortable.
#2 But if we're seeking Jesus the feeling won't last long.
"How ba-a-a-ad can I be? I'm just doing what comes naturally!" The lyrics from this song (forever seared in my brain!) from the movie The Lorax came to mind today as I was thinking of how I so easily slip into the old ways I've been trying to leave behind...the ways that come "naturally".
As I was thinking this over in the car, with King talking my right ear off about his unrealistic plans for our Thanksgiving holiday, and Lottie in the back seat squealing for joy as she steals the blanket from the screaming with fury baby, I kinda wanted to pull the van over, lift it over my head, give it a hulk-like shake and scream, "BE QUIET!!!!"
By grace alone, I didn't. And by grace alone, this song was playing on the radio:
Jesus died so that we can overcome our sins.
We are not prisoners.
We don't have to be our old selves...no matter how comfortable, no matter how accepted by others.
It's His standard, not the world's.
When the song hit the line, "We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, everyone overcome," my mind shot to Revelation 6:9-11 (I added the bold):
These martyrs are comforted, and told to rest. The Lord will overcome.
If we maintain the testimony of God's word, we will also have rest in the Lord...today and forever!
Don't stay comfortable in your old, "natural" self...Jesus died to give you a new one. (Romans 6:6)
He will overcome! And He already has!
#2 But if we're seeking Jesus the feeling won't last long.
"How ba-a-a-ad can I be? I'm just doing what comes naturally!" The lyrics from this song (forever seared in my brain!) from the movie The Lorax came to mind today as I was thinking of how I so easily slip into the old ways I've been trying to leave behind...the ways that come "naturally".
As I was thinking this over in the car, with King talking my right ear off about his unrealistic plans for our Thanksgiving holiday, and Lottie in the back seat squealing for joy as she steals the blanket from the screaming with fury baby, I kinda wanted to pull the van over, lift it over my head, give it a hulk-like shake and scream, "BE QUIET!!!!"
By grace alone, I didn't. And by grace alone, this song was playing on the radio:
[Overcome by Jeremy Camp]
We are not prisoners.
We don't have to be our old selves...no matter how comfortable, no matter how accepted by others.
It's His standard, not the world's.
When the song hit the line, "We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, everyone overcome," my mind shot to Revelation 6:9-11 (I added the bold):
9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.I found comfort here.
These martyrs are comforted, and told to rest. The Lord will overcome.
If we maintain the testimony of God's word, we will also have rest in the Lord...today and forever!
Don't stay comfortable in your old, "natural" self...Jesus died to give you a new one. (Romans 6:6)
He will overcome! And He already has!
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