Ok, let me explain. The picture over on the left is the remains of a Santa marshmallow treat that Caroline “ate” the other day. I’ve had the picture in my phone for a couple of weeks, because I actually had an idea for a blog based off it.
You see, the marshmallow is sin.
Thank you, good night!
Need more? Ok. Here were my thoughts that day:
Someone gave us this little treat (I think a student from school gave it to me), and Caroline BEGGED to have it for like a week straight. Actually, it was probably a few hours. She just HAD to have it. “Have that Santa treat, dad?”
Now, the thing is, Caroline doesn’t like marshmallows. At all. She won’t eat them. So, knowing that she won’t really like it, I, being the good parent that I am, try to convince her of this fact, by telling her so. When faced with the concept that she won’t like it, her response? “Maybe.” So, after a few hours of that, I decided to give her what she wanted.
And you see the result.
The anticipation and contest to see if she could have her heart’s desire won out over reason. She got what she wanted, but realized it wasn’t that great after all.
See the relationship to sin now?
We all, fallen creatures that we are, are bent towards desiring things that will in no way satisfy the deepest longings of our souls. We plot and connive and scheme to get the things we want (insert your own personal sin/vice here), only to realize in the end that it leaves us empty. Usually, we try again and again and again to fill it with more, more, more!!! Until finally, we do one of two things: we either fall at the feet of the only One who CAN satisfy the longing inside of us (uhhhh…that’s God), or we implode.
So where is God in this? Well, like me in the story above (bear with me…not having a god-complex here), He’s standing there telling us that we won’t like what we’re striving for. Through His Word, His Spirit, circumstance, etc., He gently nudges us away from these things that would destroy us. But He will let us have our way if, like Caroline, we refuse to listen to wisdom. (See Romans 1:24)
How do we combat this? How do we over come these desires? Paul, in Galatians 5:16-17, gives us the answer:
“But I say, ‘walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
Let’s get to walking as men and women, shall we? Let’s put away childish things.
The Wading Pool 