We often see good and capable people with brilliant intellects or skills fall into the perils of drugs, alcohol, gambling, and a myriad of other addictions. Whether it is a famous athlete, musician or someone like Ricky the third shift supervisor or Linda the CEO, they are not immune to temptations and destructive personal behaviors. Too often, it causes family rifts, job loss or worse.
In a nutshell, if you don’t conquer your demons, they most likely will conquer you!
Warnings Against Clinging to Unworthy Things
The Bible warns us against clinging to attractive yet unworthy things. For instance, in Romans 2:9, it says “There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil,” and in I Thessalonians 5:21-22, we are told to “…test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”
Why is that? It’s because the things of this world – no matter how strong and enticing they appear – they are incapable of sustaining us. Only God has the strength of sustaining. Only God is truly worthy.
Finding What is Worthy of Our Clinging
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ~ Ephesians 4:15
This is one of my favorite verses. In many ways, it epitomizes what it means to seek a refining life, on purpose. You see, in addition to clinging to God for our strength, we must also grow up into HIM. We must climb daily through prayer, study of His word and constant denials of selfish motives as well as the world’s incessant attempts to make us conform.
During my own personal journey, my first day knowing Christ was in August of 1995, shortly after I had graduated high school. It was one year and eight days after a serious injury that should have been fatal.
The next four years, I attended college and, though I openly told others I was a Christian and I truly believed I was a “good person” I really did little to display those facts. I went to Mexico for mission work twice and went to church most Sundays.
But did I ever open a Bible? Not often.
Did I pray? Sometimes.
Did I attend Sunday School? No. That was laundry day.
BIid I even try to grow into my relationship with Christ? Not really.
I truly believed that God and I had some sort of pact where I could pick and choose when and where I would come to him. I believed we had this unspoken understanding and that he was down with it. Foolish and dumb. Arrogant and ignorant. Had it been a worldly friendship, I would have been a pretty crappy friend.
We must conquer the demons before they conquer us. Know that God always has you right where he wants you. Take the opportunity to grow where you’re planted. Photo Credit: Allie_Caulfield via Compfight cc
Growing Where You Are Planted
Thankfully, though, God had planted the right seeds in my heart and mind. He had claimed me as His at a time when it was absolutely necessary. All the while, where I pretty much ignored him, he was nurturing the seeds and providing the right nutrients.
It reminds me of African violets. I’ve had many over the years and I remember one of them specifically. For a couple of years, I tried to get it to bloom. They would grow just fine, but they never would blossom. I re-potted them. I nudged the soil. I moved them in varying degrees of sunlight. I provided less water and more water at varying times. I fertilized them and did everything I could.
But frankly, these are the most aggravating flowers of all time!
But something happened. It finally blossomed. The blooms hung around for several weeks and it was marvelous. And then, just as the last blooms had died off, my second plant budded. It blossomed bigger and longer than the first.
They both had finally ignored their sheltered state and responded to all the prompting I had done. But both I and the flowers know it wasn’t me. God made it happen.
The moral there: It is not always on our timing or even through our doing that God allows us to fully blossom. Often, we will be tempted to stray. We will be tempted to give in and give up. And yet, we must grow while clinging to our strong and worthy God.