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Cherry Picking
by Sheldon Bass Cherry Picking Like most people, I enjoy the uplifting, encouraging messages of hope and inspiration from God's Word. However, for those of us who hope to really grow in our faith and live in the power of the Spirit, and experience the joyful, victorious life in Christ, we must go deeper into the truths of God's Word. For true change to take place we are going to have to face some painful truths. We must allow God to heal the hurts and wounds and faults in us that hinder our maturing in the faith. We can cherry-pick our favorite feel good verses of scripture all day and never really make much progress. Jesus never preached a watered down feel good message--He spoke the truth in words that to some people were painful truths. Yet these same words also brought healing and great hope. When a person has a festering boil they must go to a doctor to have it lanced and the necrotic, infectious fluid drained out. The Doctor then applies a healing salve and bandages up the wound. It is no different with the issues in our past life that need to be addressed; hurts and painful memories. They can cause bitterness, anger and resentment as well as guilt and shame. Jesus is the only one who is truly qualified to operate in our heart, mind and soul. All of these festering enemies to our soul are very detrimental to our spiritual growth and our well being. We need to confront these issues with Christ, who is our "Great Physician". There may be some pain as the doctor of our soul operates in us, but He also provides the anesthetic we need to endure it, and come out the other side with a clean scar; the evidence of healed hurt. We are then set for a true spiritual growth spurt, drawing closer to our Lord. He becomes increasingly dear to us, for He is enabling us to become victorious over the world and over our bothersome fleshly desires and over whatever is in our past. When we delve deeper into the truths of Gods Word and the truth about ourselves, which God's Word reveals, we are in position to make giant strides in our faith and become the victors in Christ that He has created us to be. Sheldon Bass [email protected] Sheldon K Bass is a Bible Teacher and Christian Writer in Indianapolis Indiana. http://www.Growingupinjesus.com Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |