A story of responsibility, and dodging it
Disclaimer: To understand the Lord's spiritual truth, you must be born from above by his Holy Spirit. Be sure you've submitted yourself to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and receive this gift from the Lord, lest you add knowledge with no power and are held eternally accountable.
Introduction
Hello to you all! こんにちは! I hope you're striving to enter into God's kingdom today, I certainly am. Today I worked my part-time job all day. Was very slow today, which is strange because for some odd reason, people love to order pizza on Sunday. I'm not sure why, but that's above my pay grade. I did some shopping after work, and now I'm sitting in my van writing this post. I still have not had a chance to cut my hair. It's been rainy and wet for the past few days, but this upcoming weekend looks clear (Lord-willing) and I will plan on doing it then.
Responsibility
While I have some more notes I made today on prayer which I'm still hashing through, I wanted to share some thoughts on responsibility as I think it's a vital issue. There's a lot of deception in this world, and I was a part of it willfully for a time. During my time as a false convert, I had formulated an idea of God that was unscriptural, based around what my own flesh wanted, which was a lack of responsibility. I believed that I was led by the Holy Spirit, and I believed this Spirit would move me to do good when I needed to do it. I relied heavily on my feelings. If I got a feeling to do something good, then I'd do it, but if I didn't feel like doing something, then I didn't do it, and I convinced myself that this in a sense was following the Holy Spirit. It was a very hyperspiritual, sensation based Holy Spirit idea I had formulated. I thought that my words were also Spirit-led in this sense, so I spoke very pridefully in my false ways. But when my words would be false, or foolish, or prideful, and I would get called out for it, I would end up questioning, "I thought the Holy Spirit was guiding me? Is he not helping me say what I need to say?" You can see how this idea removes myself from the responsibility of walking with the Lord, and places it all on God to do everything for me.
In reality, every man chooses to do good or evil of his own volition. I chose a lot of evil in my past. Why? Because I was an evil man, self-centered, fond of the world, puffing myself up in my false convert ways. I chose to lie, I chose to look at things I shouldn't have, I chose to get in college debt, etc. You can blame nobody but yourself, because we all have a will to choose. When you submit to the Lord and are born of his Spirit, this will to choose doesn't change. I can still choose good, or evil, in my everyday life, my thoughts, my words, etc. Just because the Lord has given me his Spirit, doesn't mean he'll walk out my faith life for me. This means he'll do his part perfectly, and I'm called to do my part of the covenant the best that I can. I choose to do good daily, I choose to do God's will daily, thus I'm walking in his Spirit. But when those times come when I choose to do evil foolishly, I'm convicted and I choose to repent and get back to doing good. It's all about choices, the Spirit leads us to make the right choices aligned with God's word and ways. I've learned to take the responsibility for all of my actions, words, motives, etc. because who are you going to blame when standing before the judge of the world? Now being alone in this walk, it's made evidently more clear to me that I myself will be standing before God, and I will have to give an account of the choices I've made. Without Jesus' shed blood, I'd be hopeless, as I've fallen short of God's righteousness. But if I choose to walk in the light, I'm abiding in Christ. I choose that :)
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7, KJV)
Closing Reflections
Tonight was a short one, as I'm still working on notes on prayer, and my Japanese learning is just hammering away at vocabulary day-by-day. Take responsibility for everything in your life. If you're not a saint, what choices are you making to seek the Lord? If you are a saint, what choices are you making to obey the Lord? God will judge every man according to his works, whether good or evil. Judge yourself first, before it's too late!
“For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:14, KJV)
Love to those in the truth.