The most influential person in our lives....

At Refuge last night, Pastor John said something that really got me thinking. He told us who the most influential person in our lives was. I automatically thought of the typical Sunday School answer, Jesus, but I was wrong. His answer was simple yet profound...its us. Each one of us is the most influential person in each of our own lives. We constantly talk ourselves into and out of things, based on the experiences we have gone through. I think about it now, and it makes so much sense. However, before last night, I had no idea I had so much influence over my own life, I just did not think about it.

As humans we tend to justify sin. Whether we think it is right or not, whatever sin we committ, we have an answer of why we did it. (And if you don't, that's a whole other problem) The example that was given was that if you see a jar of money for the collection, you can eaisly justify taking a couplke bucks from it, saying that you give to the church, or they won'ty miss it. I belive that the justification for the sin is as or even more dangerous as the sin itself. If yo are honest with yourself, you can recount a lot of times that this is true in your own life. In mine, it happens to be true a lot. I no longer allow myslef to be talked into teh sins I used to, I constantly fight with my own thoughts about it. And honestly, that is what it takes, a constant, brutual fight against not only sin, but your temptation to it.

In Psalm 42:5 it says that "Why are you downcast, O My Soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God." This excerpt from Psalm is a look into the inward battle of teh author. A constant fight with his own sin and talking himself not into sin, but into praising God. Something that probably has been overlooked in most of our lives.

I have said many times to myself and others that accepting Christ is not a one time thing, it is constant, a day to day commitment. We need to stop listening to oursleves and start talking to ourselves. Our mind is corrupt by the world, this is brutally obvious. However, with Christ in our heart, we can constantly battle our minds with the Word that God has blessed us with, His Word, The Bible.

So I give you the same challenge that Pastor John gave us at the Refuge last night. Everytime you fins yourself validating sin to yourself, and trying to talk yourslef into whatever it is, quote a verse that is in direct contardiction to it. If you do not know the verse, look it up. One, it battles fire with fire, and I guarantee that God's flame will always engulf sin. Two, it gets you into teh Word and remebering verses that you can use on a day to day basis.

Do this for a couple days, see how much better you feel about fighting the sin in your own lives. Tell me how it goes, I would love to hear about it!