Proverbs 24 - Cauterize It

24:5-6 It's better to be wise than strong; intelligence outranks muscle any day. Strategic planning is the key to warfare; to win, you need a lot of good counsel

I have recently be taking Jujitsu. I always wanted to and finally got the opportunity. It is really very fun. The weird thing is I like getting thrown more than throwing someone else. I hopefully will get over that. It doesn't seem like a way to win the battle! The interesting thing about many of the martial arts is you don't have to be a big person to be effective. Sure size helps sometimes, but with Jujitsu, size is actually a hindrance. A masterful artist uses your weight against you. You have to learn the moves properly and it is amazing how you can make a person crawl with just the slightest pressure.

In our Christian walk our battles are spiritual and against the evil one and sin. When we try to rid our lives of some sin through our own strength, we will almost inevitably fail. Strength alone cannot defeat the evil one. Only Christ can do this for us. What we need to do is turn our lives over to him daily, hourly, and sometimes every minute so that He can work in us. We tend to rationalize and make excuses for our sin, comparing it to the rest of the world. "Oh, it's okay, I don't abuse it, or if I only do it this once, its not like its a habit, or look what everyone else is doing, this is nothing". If there is an excuse out there I have used it. If we really want sin removed from our lives we must give up on ourselves and give in to God. When God removes sin he tears it out. There is no weaning, or slowly removing it from your life like a nicotine patch. It is usually cold turkey and painful withdrawals. But when it is gone and you feel refreshed and anew, and ready to tell others of your triumph. Check out Isaiah 6:1-8. Isaiah was desperate about his sin in the face of a holy God and he cried out to the Lord confessing this uncleanliness. Not really sure what his sin was but he may have had bad language, or and unclean thought life. An angel of the Lord used a burning coal to cauterize his wound. Afterwards, Isaiah went through the countryside preaching the word of the Lord and telling everyone what God had done for him and what He would do for them. This is the kind of refreshment we all want in our Christian lives. We want IT - the obvious presence of the Holy Spirit in our heart and in our lives.