“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11).
It was awful. Just awful.
As anyone who has suffered from food poisoning can attest, it is not a comfortable situation and can be quite dangerous. Fortunately, mine didn’t last but a few days after the initial onslaught, but it did cause me to review all that I had eaten and go through my freezer and jettison everything that was out of date or under suspicion.
Food poisoning can be so insidious. The offending object looks perfectly fine and, in fact, is good for you, until it is contaminated. Then watch out.
And that is the way of Satan, isn’t it? Everything created started as good. God deemed it so in Genesis 1, but then Satan took hold of each little piece and contaminated it.
Relationships
Money
Beauty
Talent
Ambition
Work
Authority
Leadership
Sex
Truth
Contentment
Even worship and religion
Each one of these used in the way God intended is good and healthy and can bring us joy, but it doesn’t take much to taint it.
Forgiveness and selflessness have given way to unforgiveness and selfishness in relationships.
God’s unique creation of each of one us has been undermined by a world’s ordained and distorted view of what constitutes beauty.
Instead of working for the glory of God, we must work to achieve personal recognition and wealth.
Even our source of contentment has been moved from trusting in God to trusting in ourselves to supply all our needs.
The cure for food poisoning is not fun and the body does it all on its own. It’s a purging of the bad, and we know it’s happening. It hurts. But in the end, it causes us to focus and reflect and evaluate on all we have eaten and make some changes. The freezer, refrigerator, and pantry are given a thorough cleaning and anything suspect is removed and destroyed.
So it is with our spiritual lives. Those impurities eventually catch up with us and cause us anxiety, discontent, despair, pride, confusion, and a hard heart. But we should be thankful that there are symptoms. Symptoms that cause us to take a good look at what it is we are “consuming” and then start to get rid of them.
Once we have, we will be well again.
It was awful. Just awful.
As anyone who has suffered from food poisoning can attest, it is not a comfortable situation and can be quite dangerous. Fortunately, mine didn’t last but a few days after the initial onslaught, but it did cause me to review all that I had eaten and go through my freezer and jettison everything that was out of date or under suspicion.
Food poisoning can be so insidious. The offending object looks perfectly fine and, in fact, is good for you, until it is contaminated. Then watch out.
And that is the way of Satan, isn’t it? Everything created started as good. God deemed it so in Genesis 1, but then Satan took hold of each little piece and contaminated it.
Relationships
Money
Beauty
Talent
Ambition
Work
Authority
Leadership
Sex
Truth
Contentment
Even worship and religion
Each one of these used in the way God intended is good and healthy and can bring us joy, but it doesn’t take much to taint it.
Forgiveness and selflessness have given way to unforgiveness and selfishness in relationships.
God’s unique creation of each of one us has been undermined by a world’s ordained and distorted view of what constitutes beauty.
Instead of working for the glory of God, we must work to achieve personal recognition and wealth.
Even our source of contentment has been moved from trusting in God to trusting in ourselves to supply all our needs.
The cure for food poisoning is not fun and the body does it all on its own. It’s a purging of the bad, and we know it’s happening. It hurts. But in the end, it causes us to focus and reflect and evaluate on all we have eaten and make some changes. The freezer, refrigerator, and pantry are given a thorough cleaning and anything suspect is removed and destroyed.
So it is with our spiritual lives. Those impurities eventually catch up with us and cause us anxiety, discontent, despair, pride, confusion, and a hard heart. But we should be thankful that there are symptoms. Symptoms that cause us to take a good look at what it is we are “consuming” and then start to get rid of them.
Once we have, we will be well again.
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