All our personal preferences must be submitted to God and his word. Some people adopt the preferences of the culture around them, while others pride themselves on being more individualistic. But for Christians, we need to adopt the preferences of God.
When a person decides to be a Christian, his life is supposed to radically change. We don’t belong to ourselves any more, we belong to God. We are not our own, but we are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). God purchased us at the price of the blood of his Son. This means that we are God’s slaves (1 Peter 2:16). God owns us. He is our master and Lord. We don’t just want to call him Lord, but we need to have the reality of his lordship over our lives.
We cannot just live however we want, but we must live according to how God wants us to live. We can’t just live according to our own desires (1 Peter 4:2), but we must live according to the Holy Spirit.
Everything is not subjective – one truth for me and another for you. God is the objective standard that defines all reality, for he is the arbiter of truth. We discover objective reality from the word of God.
The Bible reveals that our souls are comprised of two main parts: the heart and the mind. The mind has thoughts, and the heart has desires. We must measure all our thoughts and desires by the word of God.
We need to renew our mind with God’s word (Romans 12:1). God’s thoughts must fill our mind and become our thoughts. The only way that we can know God’s thoughts is through God’s word, because the word of God gives us revelation. We need divine revelation to know God’s thoughts because God’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
We also need to regulate the content of our hearts by the word of God. We are commanded to hate evil and love good (Amos 5:15). We must desire the things that God desires and hate the things that God hates.
The Holy Spirit is to saturate every part of our souls – our hearts and minds. Then we will produce the fruit of the Spirit.
If we are not willing to take up our cross, crucify our flesh, and lose our souls in this world, we cannot be Jesus’ disciples (Matthew 16:24-26). When we follow Jesus, some things will have to die within us. Our own preferences, comforts, likes and dislikes will often have to die as we are crucified with Christ. “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
We must stop justifying wrong thinking or desires with ideas like:
“I know it’s wrong, but I deserve to feel this way”
“I’m entitled to these thoughts”
“I have a right to express my emotions in that way because of what people have done to me.”
There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is death (Proverbs 14:12). Sometimes we avoid doing the hard things that God wants us to do because it seems better to do something else. Sometimes we just don’t want to obey God. We don’t think it will work, or we don’t feel like it. We want to maintain rights over our own life and do things our own way. We are hesitant to go to the cross.
It’s like eating healthy food, exercising, or taking medicine. It might seem unpleasant for a while, but afterwards obedience to God will bring healing into our lives. The only way to experience the resurrection power of God is through crucifixion. We must take up our cross in order to live a normal Christian life in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible warns us against walking in the sparks we have kindled (Isaiah 50:10). Trying to walk down a dark path with little sparks is compared to trying to get through life by walking according to our own desires, thoughts, or human understanding. If we do things in our own way, then the Bible says we will lie down in torment (Isaiah 50:11).
The Hebrew word torment means a place of pain, grief, and terror. We will face more grief and pain when we try to solve our problems in our own way. We need to turn to the blazing light of Christ rather than the fleeting sparks of our own wisdom.
The Hebrew word torment also refers to being fashioned, shaped, or made. Torment can shape us. When we roll things over in our minds or hearts, reliving things and experiencing their emotions over and over again, we can etch our lives with pain.
Jesus is the only one who can set us free from evil. This is why he died and rose again. We need to turn away from our own ways and turn to him. He will save us. If we are tormented because we’ve gone in our own ways in the past, there is forgiveness and healing with Jesus. He loves us in spite of our failures, and he will strengthen us by his word and Spirit so we can be safe in the future.
Let Jesus Christ be your Lord. Let him dominate your mind and fill your heart. The Holy Spirit will enable you to crucify your flesh and lose your soul in this world that you may preserve it unto eternal life. This will be by his grace, as you yield yourself to him who bought you with the cost of his blood. This is the bright path that leads to true happiness and abundant life.
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