Who's Leading Whom?

So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. I Cor. 9:26-27

Have you ever met or worked with someone who didn’t know were they were going in life? I remember working with one such person. Every day it seemed he woke up “in a different world.” I don’t mean by this that he was ignorant or clueless. What I mean is that he didn’t have an overarching goal, direction, or intent to his life. His goal or purpose when he woke up each morning was whatever lay directly in front of him. He never told me as such, but it was evident by the way he lived. This mindset was further evidenced by his comment to me that, “I don’t think you should deny yourself whatever you want.”

That all sounds great, noble, and liberated, but it just won’t satisfy in the face of reality. Someone explained to me once that God created us to live with our soul in charge of our mind, which, in turn, is in control of our body. When we turn this plan upside down and let our flesh control us, we wonder around with no real purpose in mind. I liken living in this manner to owning a small dog and letting it walk us.

I own a small Silky Terrier, and she loves to get loose every occasion she can. When she does so, she runs helter skelter all over the neighborhood and crosses the street without any regard to traffic. Also, when I walk Missy, she jerks me all over the sidewalk, so I begin to wonder who is walking whom. We are like the person who lets the dog walk them or like my little dog that runs the neighborhood aimlessly, when we allow our flesh to tell our minds what to think or our spirit what is right and wrong.

The main problem with listening to what our flesh craves is that we do not know what we want. In this regard, we’re like a little dog running around from one yard to the next with no real logic as to where we’re going. This is evidenced by the way we, as individuals and a society, are so fickle. We jump from one favorite music artist, song, TV show, actor, and hobby to another. On a more personal level, we jump from one relationship, friendship, theology and church to another, according to how we feel. Likewise, we swing back and forth between condemning and condoning certain behaviors based on what our flesh is telling us we need; one day adultery is bad, and the next it is justified when our flesh gets a hankering. One day this thing makes us happy, the next it doesn’t satisfy. Consequently, we become scattered in our thinking, so that the whole world seems disjointed and doesn’t make any sense. We become schizophrenic in desiring one purpose that will make us happy but never committing to the one that could bring us lasting peace.

Letting your flesh tell you what you need and what is right and wrong is, likewise, a bad idea, because the flesh doesn’t have your best interest at heart. If we were to allow our dogs to guide us in their walk, we would surely be injured. They would lead us out in front of a car or into a yard to attack another dog three times their size. Similarly, the passions in our flesh aren’t concerned with our well-being; they’re only concerned with being satisfied. Our passions give no thought as to the disease or danger to which we’re being exposed.

I was a teenager once. I know that teenage boys will do some pretty foolish things if wisdom doesn’t dampen those impulses. Just ask some young man why he jumped on a skateboard with a pogo stick (I actually saw this on a funny video television show.) and nine times out of ten, he’ll respond, “I don’t know. Just felt like it.” Exactly.

Likewise, I would venture to guess that many people in jail are there because they gave no thought to what they were doing. Their flesh told them they needed something; they listened to what it told them they needed; and they wound up paying the consequences.

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Rom. 7:22-23

Many times I want to re-name my dog “Houdoggie,” you know, Houdini/Houdoggie. Yeah, it’s strange. I admit it. The reason, though, is that at least two times a week that little dog escapes out of the house or gets away from me as I’m putting her on her collar. As dumb as that dog is, she’ll take advantage of the one moment I’m not diligent. That’s the way our flesh is. We think we have it beat down -- no, you don’t want to look at that, listen to that, do that. You let down your guard for one moment, and BAM, you’re doing something you know is wrong.

If you want to be happy, you must live with some type of purpose or goal in mind. Not just any goal will do. If you live with the purpose of serving your flesh, you’ll be destroyed. The best thing we can do is make God’s purposes our purposes. I want to do this, but my flesh keeps getting in the way!

O Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Rom. 7:24

As much as we might all want to serve God, we still seem to cater to whatever our flesh wants, whatever it might be -- food, cigarettes, soda, coffee. We all still struggle with the sin that robs us from focusing on God. It’s not that my body is bad but rather that it is not yet regenerated, held captive, to sin. Sin is like my little dog who has been outside all day and now decides it’s time to come in. She’ll sit outside and bark with that little whiney yap until I give in and let her in. It makes me mad when I finally give in to her, because I know I’m bigger, stronger, and smarter than she is. Yet I still give in to her persistent barking. I think that’s the experience we all have with the passions that hold our flesh hostage. Romans 7 is quite refreshing, therefore, because it describes, I believe, the Christian experience of the Apostle Paul. I can just imagine Paul reflecting on beholding the Risen Savior and thinking “such a revelation should drive me to forsake every false promise of pleasure by body claims in order to obey God” But yet, even the Apostle Paul was plagued with the passions that tempt ordinary Christians.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Rom. 7:25

So how do we find, and keep, purpose in our lives? First, we must confess what God states about our passions: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing Rom 7.18. You’ll never look to anyone else for help as long as you think that your passions are able to tell you what you need. Secondly, we must confess what God states about ourselves. You’ll never look to anyone else for help as long as you think you can satisfy yourself. Thirdly, we must allow God to tell us what our purpose is. He generally created us to obey Him. The Westminster catechism states that sin is “any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.” He also created each of us with a specific purpose in mind, and He alone possesses the wisdom and authority as our Creator as to what that purpose is. We will find peace and purpose when we allow him to do with us as He pleases and obey Him as He commands. The more we yield to His purpose, the more we’ll overcome sin in our lives, the more we’ll avoid the disastrous consequences of our sin, and the more we’ll become what He intended.

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