Thursday, August 26, 2010

What are you practicing?

1 John 3:7-8a

Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

I read this verse the other day and have been meditating on it, and sharing it with others. Here are my thoughts and what I believe the Lord is saying to me, and to you.

Practices. This instantly makes me think of football. When you play a sport you practice it, a lot, in the hopes of getting better as you repeat it. You put your time, energy, focus, on this one thing. You repeat it, over and over again, you find ways to improve.

According to this verse, you can practice either righteousness, or sin. What are you practicing? What are you investing your time, thoughts, energy, into? Are you surrounding yourself with Godly people, things that will spur you on to righteousness and a set apart life? Or are you allowing things into your life that distract you from God? What music are you listening to? What movies are you watching? What are you thinking about? What are you saying?

Living set apart is a process, we are all sinners, scripture makes that very clear. However, I wonder what message we are sending to those around us by our actions? What team are you playing for? You can say that you are playing for the New England Patriots, you can even wear their jersey, but if you are running plays, and scoring touch downs for the Minnesota Vikings, it's clear what team you are on.

In the same way, you can say that you are a follower of Jesus until you are blue in the face, but if you fill your life with things of this world, alcohol, parties, relationships, music, movies, sexual immortality, negative talk, perverted speech, lustful thoughts, pride, etc and it is clear who you play for, and it's not Jesus.

~Standing on His Promises~
CaseyMay


2 comments:

Pen to Paper; Spirit to Soul said...

Excellent thoughts! I really want to be on Jesus team!!!

CaseyMay said...

Thanks Pamela!Me too! :)