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Not Mastered By Anything

             “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. (I Corinthians 6:10) 

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. (I Corinthians 6:23) 

“If your god is really a god, he can do whatever he wants.”

I agree. God can do whatever He wants, but it’s not wise to continue with the presupposition that He would want to do the things we might want to do, or the things that the pagan gods have been described as wanting to do.  It is equally unwise to ascribe to Him the motives we find in ourselves, especially if ours are ours at our worst.

But this is our struggle. We find motives in ourselves     that – if (and when) they are attributed to God, they are considered a reason to reject God. If we find them in others, those others are declared to be monsters. In ourselves (as noted yesterday), we flatter ourselves that they are harmless, or that they harm only ourselves, or that somehow, we’re different – special.

When we start dealing with ourselves honestly, we must admit that today’s passages are true. Not everything we want to do is constructive. Some things we think we want to do control us – or would if given a chance. This is where the idea of dying to self comes in. We are not as able to do anything we want as God is, but within the limitations of what is possible for a physical being, we can do what we want. The question is whether what we want is the best possible thing for us to do. Too often, that matter. All that matters is that we wants it. (Oh yes, my Precious.)

          Dying to self isn’t bludgeoning ourselves for eternity. As Dallas Willard puts it, it’s about coming to live life as Jesus would live it if He were to take our places. It’s not about never getting to do what I want, but on learning to want to do good, right, and best things instead of settling for what we think we want because we happen to (think we) want it.

          This week, John Ortberg suggested that we adopt the 15-minute rule. If we want to do something, especially about which we have questions, we wait for 15 minutes, praying about the issue.

          At the end of 15 minutes, we can have it if we still want it. But maybe tomorrow, make it 16 minutes.

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