Sunday, September 25, 2016

Patterns -Acceptable and Unacceptable

UV 2077/10000 Patterns- Acceptable and Unacceptable
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Genesis 4 v 7

We need to rule over our own desires and not allow desires to rule over our hearts and minds. Temptation and hence, the tempter is always at the door of our hearts and minds. The threat of temptation is always proximate. The Lord sees our hearts and reads our minds. Our spiritual worship and sacrifice emanate from the heart and mind of man. It is the innermost tabernacle, the sanctum sanctorum, the holiest of holies. Here, the Spirit of God and the spirit of man should commune and the tempter should never be given room. Our attitudes at the heart and mind level should be acceptable and pleasing to the Lord as was that of Abel. We should always be aware and wary of the desire for sin to rule over our hearts and minds as the unholy jealousy of Cain provoked him to murder his brother Abel as his sacrifice did not win the favour or grace of the Lord. A pattern is a combination of inner motive, thoughts, attitudes, words, actions and reactions.

God should rule over our desires, our thoughts, our emotions, our decisions, our actions and reactions. This is the kingdom of God within us. Once His righteous rule is established in us, His kingdom or righteous rule will be established between and among us. It is an inner change of heart that the Lord first wants to see in us and not any external manifestation. Once however, the inner change is wrought by the sacrifice the Lord Himself made in and through His Son Jesus, it tends to get reflected in our attitudes and actions to our fellow beings. We are moved not only to look out for our own well being but that of our kindred. We receive the power and authority to fend ourselves from the sin that crouches at the door of our hearts and minds.

It is the Lord ‘s desire that we do well in all things, that we excel in all things. Our good, His glory! In order to do so, we need to study the patterns of the Word and avoid the patterns of the world. The patterns of the Word are made evident through the faith and lives of people of faith from Abraham to St Paul. It is made evident through the communications of the Lord direct to them and through them to us. There are patterns of thinking, speaking and doing that Jesus demonstrated to us. We need to adhere to these and imitate these patterns. The Word also shows us patterns that we ought to avoid like the example of Cain’s jealousy and his surrender to the enemy of his soul.

Prateep V Philip

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