02/21/17 THE SELF/GOD BALANCE

02/21/17 THE SELF/GOD BALANCE

Full of self; void of God

Long on self; short on God.

Void of self; full of God.

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I posted this as a reminder to those who started out with Jesus, but are turning back to sin. They don't think they are turning. Ask Eve if she thought she was turning.

And I know why most of those folks turn back to self glorification and self adulation and self exaltation and self inspiration and self education. It is usually because,
* They did not come to a point of total surrender, by which they entered into an entirely sanctified experience,

or

* They refused to keep themselves on the altar of sacrifice after they got sanctified by the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and therefore did not diligently continue to walk in the light, grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, follow Christ fully or deny themselves daily.

When people fail to stay on the path of total dedication, the fruit of the Spirit begins to diminish and disappear from their lives. The less right-of-way that they yield to the Holy Spirit, the less of the fruit of the Spirit will be present in their lives.
Their love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control will be crowded out by self promotion.

Of course, they will not see it as pride (because that is how pride works), and they will not seek spiritual counsel from spiritual leaders, and they will not listen to the voice of other believers, telling them that they need to turn from their harsh form of self righteousness and self importance. Rather than allowing God, His word, His pastors, His children to input loving reproof into their lives, they evaluate everything from a self serving point of view.

It would be good and helpful if other believers would lovingly confront and correct the self deceived person, but it usually does not happen.

The beauty of Jesus should shine more brightly in our lives, as we advance in the faith. We should become more sensitive, more approachable, more humble, more responsive. We should see the graces of faith, moral excellence, self control, patience, god-likeness, brotherly kindness and perfect love saturating our lives.

Here is the old route from spiritual failure to spiritual success (which became a song).

All of self and none of Thee.
Some of self and some of Thee.
Less of self and more of Thee.
None of self and all of Thee