Saturday, January 8, 2011

Writing on the Wall, New Year Resolutions

Daniel 5:3-6, "So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lamp stand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking."

The writing on the walls of our lives, that is why we make New Year resolutions. We see something in ourselves and we become determined to change the coarse that we have been taking. We see the writing on the wall, but all too often we are not convinced and our hearts do not change.

Not too long ago, I went to the doctor and checked my blood to see how it was doing. It was not good. My blood cells were stressed, there was toxins and yeast, and nothing was moving as it should. I was convicted and found that my sin, my idol, was gluttony,(blog titled, "New Life/Freedom Living" 6-24-10). I knew the coarse that I needed to take in order to have good health. And so, for about six months I did really good. I was diligent and not even really tempted to give in. Then, I went to the doctor again and did another check with my blood. I could see the difference in my blood under the microscope. My blood looked wonderful. I had fat plump cells. No yeast or toxins were detected and everything looked very healthy. Then Christmas entertainment and holiday parties came. I did not heed the to the diet that I knew could make a difference. I ate and drank whatever was presented to me. One month later, after my last doctor visit, I went back to the doctor and had another blood test. I was back to square one, in just one month!

How many times does this happen to us? We know how to change our life. We know what it takes to be healthy. We understand that if we keep living as we desire, satisfying every want that our physical bodies want, that we are one day going to be caught with the writing on the wall. We will not be able to blame anyone else. We will not have another chance one day. One of these times is going to be our last chance at playing Russian roulette.

Oswald Chambers, "We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this error, and the same process is at work in our lives. God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having, namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives."

God has shown me the path to life. He has graciously given me time and now He is calling me to a path of life that will ultimately give me life. My hearts desire has to be for Him and the life that He is offering me. I can no longer hold on to the idols of my past. I cannot just eat whatever is placed in front of me. I cannot be a slave of things, but live free in the path that I have been shown. If I do not heed the warning that has been written on the wall, one day I may end up a prisoner trapped in a broken body. New Year resolutions are good, but it takes a true change of heart to stay with with them. All too often we stay the coarse for about 6 months. Then we start feeling safe and do not see the true need any more. Then all of a sudden we find ourselves right back where we started. If you have seen the writing on the wall, have you allowed that insight to change your heart, so that He can change your desires. The desire is life. The idol is a life trapped by what we worship. What has been your idol? What have you been worshipping? What has been the writing on your wall?

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