Memory Verse: "When a corrupting spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil." (Lk.11:24, MSG)
Scripture Reading: Lk.11:24-26.
In talking to people with life-controlling problems in a bid to introducing them to a life of freedom from sin's power, I have come to discover it is impossible to bring any life-controlling problem to a dead stop and remove it without putting something else in its place.
Sin won't yield to exposure; fear can't drive it out; it won't self-destruct. There is no such thing as a simple separation from an old habit. It takes more than a nightime emotion of sorrow because the heart will not be robbed of one affection without another to fill the void. It will not consent to be left desolated of love, unless a greater love dispossess the old.
That's the new love I'm writing about.
Any person who tries to tear out of his or her heart some kind of pleasurable sin or affection without putting something in its place is flirting with a disastrous situation. The last state of that man would be worse than the first, with legion of demons flocking in to fill the void.
Sweetheart, Christ is not some kind of "sin plucker" who goes about taking habits and pleasures away from sinners, leaving them clean, but empty.
God doesn't take anything from anybody; He simply offers something far better. God doesn't make voids; he fills them. We have God all wrong. We come asking Him to take things away from us, rather than asking Him to flood our souls with the mighty river of His love and give us something far greater than what we already have.
The love of God and the love of this world are two affections; not just rivals, but enemies (see 1 Jn.2:15, Rm.8:7). They cannot dwell together in the same heart. But the love of God is so powerful, so all-consuming, it subordinates other loves. If other affections won't yield, He chases them away. When we accept our adoption into God's family by faith, He brings the heart under the mastery of one great and glorious affection, thereby delivering us from the bondage of old affections.
Lastly, you will not be completely free until you set your mind to possess a strong affection for the things above (see Col.3:1-2). Don't allow your unbelief screen out the vision of God's unfailing love for you. The best way to cast out your impure affection is to invite a pure one.
This love is just a call away. Go ahead and invite Him in. Receive this love for it is in this love that we find power to walk in the spirit so as not to fulfil the desires of the flesh (see 2 Cor.5:14).
Ponder Point: "Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, 'oh well sin doesn't matter that much?'" Oswald Chambers.
Action Point: Set your mind to possess a strong affection for the things above.
Prayer Point: Father, let Your love transform me thereby making me more like You in Jesus name, Amen.
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