Greetings,
Greetings,
Greetings,
Have you ever watched a person that was really good at knitting? Their hands and fingers keep moving in a rhythm even when they take their eyes off of their task. Or have you watched someone chop food so fine and so fast that you don’t even worry about them cutting themselves because it is obvious that they have been doing this same task for a long time? Over time, with continual effort, complicated actions like knitting, shuffling cards, making dinner, or playing a song on an instrument, can become almost automatic and void of thought.
That is what most people call muscle memory. But the memory is not held in the muscle. It is a brain function. The muscles we use regularly for these endeavors become strong and capable, but it is still our brain that makes it seamless. A recent Oxford University Article on the subject says: "This is because the memory for facts, known as declarative memory, is thought to be a different system, controlled by different brain mechanisms, than the one used for memory of life events, known as episodic memory."
Colossians 3:2 tells us, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." Setting your mind is not something that is automatic. We are prone to think of the earthly things, not the stuff of heaven. So, setting our mind is a calculated and declarative decision.
The disciplines of the Christian life can become mechanical and stored as an episodic memory. They are regular episodes that happen in our lives, hopefully on a daily basis, but we can sometimes miss the declaration that we are making by our actions. When we sit down to pray, we should be making a declarative memory. Set your heart and your mind on God--try not to make it automatic. I like to begin with remembering what God did for me through Jesus. That helps me to begin with gratitude.
This week, try to make it a habit to focus while praying. It may mean that you have to carve out more time to pray, but the effort will be worth it!
Love ya,
Chris
Greetings,
How did sin enter the world? God gave man the opportunity to say of His creation… "No thanks, I can do this myself, and probably better."
Being created beings, we have been given the gift of self. What we do with our self is no small matter. Do you choose to be a person that spends most of your life trying to prove that you are somebody, that you can make it on your own, blaze your own path? Or do you choose to give your self as a offering back to the Lord? By creating us, He already made us somebody, but our desire to prove ourselves and make a name for ourselves becomes the means by which Satan, our flesh and the world captivate our self and lead us to make an idol of self. Or what you and I may call: selfishness.
C.S. Lewis says the self-will is, “the ‘weak spot’ in the very nature of creation, the risk which God apparently thinks worth taking.” The risk is that humanity will become so self-dependent that they turn away from the dependency of God. It seems really natural that humanity would choose the path of selfishness because surrender feels weak and control feels powerful.
Self is necessary. If we were without self, we would have nothing to sacrifice, nothing to surrender. With our self there is an opportunity to choose God. When we acknowledge our dependency on Him and surrender our self to Him, it becomes a beautiful celebration of who God created us to be. The Bible defines the one who surrenders self to the Lord as being a new creation—the old is gone, the new has come.
Romans 12:1 says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship."
Selfishness is not an adorable attribute. It is something to be rooted out, and you can do that by surrendering authority and control of your life. The “weak spot” in creation can be the most powerful when we surrender our self to Christ!
Love ya
Chris