Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ~Galatians 6:8 (NIV)
The word “sow” means to plant seed for growth, to set something into motion or my personal favorite…to begin an enterprise. Wow, the definitions themselves speak volumes to us! Every thought has the potential to become a seed that will reap a harvest depending upon what we do with that thought. We are told in 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (NIV) Have you ever noticed how many arguments you have in your head during the course of a day? Who wins for the most part? Your spirit man or your carnal man? That can be determined by the words and actions that follow that battle. If have accepted Jesus as your Savior and have been born again your mind is a battlefield, and the course of your life is determined by who wins those battles, you by the Spirit of God or the enemy sowing thoughts contrary to the word of God. We can’t blame the devil anymore because he has been dethroned. In Luke 10:18 we read “Jesus said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning’” (GW) He only has the authority that we give to him.
The enemy is no stranger to what makes us tick, individually or mankind collectively. He has been watching us for generations. The billions of dollars spent on marketing every year proves that to be true. Every temptation comes in the form of a thought. We are told in James 1:14 “A man must not say when he is tempted, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God has no dealings with evil, and does not himself tempt anyone. No, a man’s temptation is due to the pull of his own inward desires, which can be enormously attractive. His own desire takes hold of him, and that produces sin. And sin in the long run means death—make no mistake about that, brothers of mine!” (PHILLIPS) Have you had any “enormously attractive” desires lately? Ones that wouldn’t bring about any benefit to yourself or others, much less any glory to God? We all do, and we all fail at times, that is why we need a Savior and trust me, He is a 24/7 for all eternity Savior. Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God interceding for us continually and His blood that covers every confessed sin never loses its power to sustain us. But that doesn’t mean we can’t choose to go way too far down the wrong road, not admitting we are sinning and allowing temptations to turn into habits. We all have the same choice today in every endeavor. Every word and every deed…we can choose life, or we can choose death. We can choose words that will lift us and others out of a pit or we can choose words that will put ourselves and others into a pit. Same for our deeds. One of the best ways to ensure you are on the right path is to think about what you are thinking about. In doing that you can choose to cast thoughts down. Kind of like a filter that sifts out the bad and only lets the good stuff through. David knew all about the need for “thought filters”. He petitions the Lord in prayer in Psalm 19:14 asking “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” (NLV) That is a great prayer model for us to use every day, even several times a day. Doing that will help ensure that we aren’t developing “unalterable habits” of the negative sort. Those habits that take and never give back. The ones that feed our flesh but destroy our testimonies, our confidence and produce shame giving the devil a foothold in our minds. We must CHOOSE to sow words and deeds that please God and when we make those right choices, He promises we will reap eternal life. Right here and right now we can be living the life Jesus gave His for us to experience…if we so choose!
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, He will give eternal life. ~Romans 2:7 (NIV)
What good choices do you need to make today?
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