A Life Set Apart

In the Priscilla Shirer study I am doing, we have been talking a great deal about what it means to live a life "set apart". I have found myself examining my own life and really finding so many areas that need work. By nature I am a people pleaser. I just want others to like me and think I am a responsible person they can count on. God has really been dealing with me in this area of my life. He reminds me that there is only ONE opinion that matters, and that is His. As long as I align myself with Him and His desires for my life I cannot go wrong.

The thing is I thought I was aligning myself pretty well and I am learning quickly that I have much work to do.

You see, the Bible tells us that we are to spiritually die to our sins. DIE! That got me thinking...I mean, I make a pretty good effort to do things the way I think God would want me to, but am I dying to myself and my sins? He desires my FULL obedience and I have to admit most times my obedience is half hearted at best. As I have done this study I am becoming convicted to be better, to do better, for the God I serve.

He offers us freedom and a new life in Him but we have not fully accepted that if we have not died to our previous lifestyle, whether that means, addiction, sexual immorality, lying, gossip, gluttony...and the list goes on. We are to take off all of those things and put on the full armor of God and if we leave even one of those sins, it takes up residence where an important piece of His armor should rest.

In order to fully follow where the Lord is leading we must willingly give things up and leave that old life behind. This is hard, but when we sin, we are creating our own bondage, and Christ offers freedom. I constantly feel this gap between myself and my God and I think this is the issue. I have some old baggage that I have not gotten rid of. Some bad habits and sin that follows me around preventing my growth. We don't get to pick and choose which sins we want to surrender, you know just the big ones maybe, we must surrender ALL. When we repent, we must turn from sin, not just say, Hey God, I know this is really wrong and I am sorry, BUT...it is hard, or I can't just yet, or I will when the timing is right. If we repent we must turn from sin, all sin NOW. That is not to say we won't stumble. We all do, but to repeatedly go back to the same sin over and over only creates a barrier between ourselves and the protection of our Heavenly Father.

He wants our obedience, it isn't easy, but the Bible clearly states how we are to live our lives and He makes no mistakes about it. Several year ago before Howard and I were married, shortly after I accepted Christ, we got engaged. After this we moved in together. I found myself constantly defending myself to others, as this was seen as a sin. You see I didn't get it. I knew what the Bible said, but I figured that one maybe didn't apply to me. I mean we were GOING to get married. We weren't just living together indefinitely. We searched the Bible for the truth and we just didn't feel it was wrong.

As I said I was young in my faith and I did not see then what I see now. I came up with every excuse in the book...finances being the biggest of those. I mean why should we both pay rent if we could just split it. I was in college and he was working construction. I see now that part of the reason, is that we are to live "set apart". What Howard and I did, was not living "set apart" it was what EVERYONE was doing, it was what was easy. We had become so integrated into the world that it didn't seem wrong. We had our priorities messed up. Our sin kept us from God's blessings at the time.

I can tell you that that sin that we committed then has reared its ugly head in our marriage. There is certainly a reason that God made an order for things. We have been able to repent and move past this sin, but there are others that I have been clinging to. Sometimes sin seems the easier route. I mean eventhough God is calling me to spend time with Him, I often want to just tune out and tune in to the TV. I put TV before God! Sometimes, I have a friend who has done something to hurt me, and instead of confronting the friend and mending the relationship, I grow bitter and cold toward the person. Sometimes, I am in a room where people are gossipping or saying things that belittle a person, and I chime in instead of refusing to allow my words to be used as weapons.

I can tell you friends, I have come far, but I have far to go, and I have made a commitment to stop living a lukewarm life toward God, only choosing to obey the rules that suit me. God is not concerned with my comfort. Sometimes I find myself on the fence between what God wants and what I want. I am taking a leap of obedience to His side of the fence. He is the only one I can count on. He deserves my whole self, not my half hearted self. I am ready to live a life "set apart" I am okay with it if people think I am NUTS! Many thought that of Jesus. How about you?