The Painful Reward of Sexual Lust

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God…For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God gives His Holy Spirit to you.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-8


Observation:
There is nothing more unwelcoming to the Holy Spirit than a heart prone to the desires of the flesh. Sexual immorality has devastating consequences in our personal life, but more than anything, in our relationship with God. Rejecting God’s calling of purity is to evict the Holy Spirit from our daily affairs. That’s why King David was so devastated when his improprieties with Bathsheba. He felt the presence of the Holy Spirit departing from him. David realized that immorality and the Holy Spirit cannot cohabitate in the same heart. If one is entertained, the other will be evicted. Sexual lust is a powerful enemy that has the potential to destroy everything I hold dear—my relationship with God, my relationship with my wife and family, and my relationship with my coworkers in the harvest. Lust is a woman dressed to kill. She looks very pleasing with the first impressions, but at the end it only brings death. Sexual lust brings nothing but a momentary placer loaded with pain and a high long-term cost. Its reward is a place where God is present to pour His wrath, not His mercy.

Application:
We know that immorality is wrong and detrimental for our growth. The worse part of it is that lack of sexual self-control evicts the Holy Spirit from our hearts. We wrongly think that we could somehow entertain both, God and lust. This old challenge is set before us in the form of a crossroad. In one way is our purpose to live morally pure and on the other way is the lustful desire to seek satisfaction with all kinds of selfish sexual pleasures. We cannot do both. The biggest lie from Satan is to believe that we have place in our hearts for both. We must chose who we will be entertained, and who will be evicted. We cannot trade the giver of life for the giver of death.
The strategy must be clear and put into immediate practice when lust comes demanding my affection. I must decline her invitations by ignoring her first attempts to grab my attention. I must reject every single thought of sexual immorality when it’s starting to appear. That will keep my heart clean. But also, I must be aware of the need of my recently clean heart to be inhabited. If the Holy Spirit is absent from my heart, then my former lust will come back seven times stronger to find a clean but empty house. That’s why lust is a monster that only can grow stronger if we continue giving her room. We must be unwelcoming towards immorality and very receptive to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, please forgive me for keeping my heart empty after each time you clean the house. No wonder the enemy returns seven times stronger! Don’t let me make the same mistake again. Please take over my heart and make it your home. Give me wisdom and determination to ignore lust each time she’s knocking at the door. But more than anything, let my fight against lust not in a defensive mode but in the offensive by walking in the Spirit. Let me have a life that welcomes your presence from dawn to dusk, and form dusk to dawn. Lust cannot be around your presence. Saturate me with your Holy Spirit and let me be more like you—pure and holy. Let me walk according to your will for me, sanctified, and causing my entire life to be a vessel of honor, not an instrument of uncontrollable passion. Amen.

Seek or Forsake

As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intend of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.
1 Chronicles 28:9


Observation:
As king David charges Solomon with the assignment of the temple building in this verse, his admonishing as a loving father comes across. More than building the temple, David exhorts his son to seek God. David is passing the baton of his royal assignment, not his personal relationship with God. Solomon has to walk on his own the path of faith. He needs to know the Lord, the God of his father, and learn how to serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind. Ministry is transferable, but intimacy with God must be a personal responsibility to cultivate and maintain.
The wonderful thing about David’s legacy is his special friendship with God. David’s heart was pure and his thoughts were absent from wickedness. He was a sinner, but his heart was not set to sin because of his constant passion for God’s presence. Passion for the Lord results in fruitful obedience. David is more concerned for the condition of his son’s heart, not for the state of the building project. He knows that if Solomon has the right heart towards God, the Lord will bless all his endeavors and the assignment will be done according to the Lord’s will.

Application:
Once again the Lord reminds me of the most important assignment in my life—to be closer to the Him, to depend more on Him, and to love Him with my “whole heart” and with a “willing mind.” These last two words are crucial in order to live out my love for God. My mind must be willing to pursue the Lord, to seek His face, to have His insight, and to think like Him. My biggest struggle both as a believer and leader is to think according to the mind of Christ. The reason why I sin is because I’m not thinking like God. I make poor decisions is because I’m on my own, uninfluenced by the Holy Spirit. Forsaking God is more than stop attending church. Forsaking God has to do with not giving Jesus the place He deserves in our mind and in our heart. Instead of being the Master and Commander he becomes my personal Genie, my spare tire, my forgotten umbrella for rainy days.
Seeking God is to cultivate a life regimen in which the Lord has priority over the tasks. My talents and gifts can take me so far, but the anointing that comes from intimacy with the Lord can take me to the places where miracles happen and where faith is like the air we breathe. Of course I want to have a big assignment in my life and ministry the same way Solomon had. But I want to seek God’s face above all. I want God’s friendship more than the prestige of ministry.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, please make my mind more willing to seek your loving face above seeking your giving hands. I want intimacy above effectiveness. Prosperity and blessings will be nothing if I don’t have you. Please help my to pray more in such a way that I grow in my dependence with you. Forgive me for the many times in which a serve with half heart, more concerned about my professional reputation than my spiritual growth. Teach me how to seek your face in such a way that my ministry becomes a reflection of my friendship with you. Please Lord I need you more than anything, more than degrees, or more influence, or higher positions. I’m willing to trade my high calling for closeness to you. Give me strength and courage to walk over the places you want me to conquer. Increase my passion for you by the way I live for you. Amen.

Consequences of Sin

And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of Thy servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
1 Chronicles 21:8


Observation:
David went ahead and numbered the people of Israel, something that was clearly prohibited by the Law. Joab tried to bring the king back to senses and persuaded him unsatisfactory to relent his decision. But David was stubborn. This deal took 9 months and 20 days to unfold, and each day David had the opportunity to repent. When everything was done, David realized that his actions were sinful and recognized his sin and foolishness before the Lord.
What amazes me about this story is that God forgave David’s sin but there were still consequences that not only affected him as a king, but he entire people. 70,000 Israelites died in the course of a three-day plague. This speaks a lot about the way God provides forgiveness for our sinful actions. It reflects God’s character when it comes to dealing with our stubbornness.

Application:
To be honest, this event makes me uncomfortable when thinking about God’s mercy. David repented and still the consequences of his actions affected 70,000 innocent people. No wonder many skeptics hold this stories as negative PR for God. I’m disturbed by the fact that sincere forgiveness still carry on consequences about the poor decisions we have made. I’m like David in that sometimes I have to wait a lot in order to realize that I’m doing something wrong. I’m stubborn, slow to obey, and very optimistic about God’s grace. That’s why this story disturbs me so much.
Many people feel the same way about God and turn their feelings into negative attitude. But today I feel encouraged to turn my outrage and disturbance into a positive attitude. I hope I’m disturbed enough to be motivated to avoid sin. I don’t have to wait 9 months and 20 days to realize my foolishness and repent. I want to be quick to change my mind and diligent to keep my thoughts pure. I want to repent right away when the sinful ideas are contemplated, not after they become actions. Repentance before sinful actions protect those who se serve and love. Repentance after the sinful actions occur will affect others, weather we like it or not.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, please make disturbed enough about your character to the point of affecting my attitude towards temptation and sin. Please help me to repent before I commit a sinful act, not after. Have mercy on me, on those who I love, and in those who follow me. I have a lot of influence in people’s lives and I want to steward that influence well by living with integrity and moral character. Please help me to have reverence and fear of you in order to avoid sinful steps. Show me again the areas where I need to obey you and that I postponed, or neglected. Cause me to be motivated by a simple whisper of your voice and to obey you right away when you command something in my life. Amen.

Restoring Communion With God

For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
Thou are not pleased with burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
Psalm 51:16-17


Observation:
David’s heart went so far away from God’s ways that prompted him to commit adultery, murder, and conspiracy to cover his sinful tracks. He shut down the voice of the Spirit in his conscience and got caught under a supernatural revelation to Nathan the prophet. David was shocked not only at the way Nathan wisely confronted him with his sin but also at the realistic evaluation of his fallen heart. That’s why he appeals to God’s grace, lovingkindness, and mercy to be forgiven and cleansed from his iniquity. He was disgusted with his stained heart and requested God to create in him a clean heart, to renew a diligent spirit to obey God’s ways, and to restore communion with the Lord’s presence.
What amazes me the most about this incident is David’s understanding of restoring communion with God. Normally the tradition was to present a guilt offering and a burnt offering to atone the sin. But for David that wasn’t enough if the heart was far away from the sacrifice. He literally came to the Lord with a broken spirit, a contrite heart, and a humble and repentant attitude.

Application:
We know that our sin damages our intimacy with God and that confession and repentance restores that relationship. But we must very careful to live that reality seriously and with the highest level of respect. We must understand that a broken spirit is. A broken spirit is more than an apologetic attitude. It’s a lifestyle of humility before God that prompts us to distrust our human instincts and trust in the power of God to defeat temptation. It’s more than feeling sorry and shameful for our bad behavior. It’s a condition of complete dependence in God’s grace, mercy, and lovingkindness. It’s a state of mind where our goodness is totally absent and Christ’s work in the cross fills the smallest crack.
When we come to the Lord with a broken and contrite heart we approach him humbled by the greatness of God’s character compared to ours. In His presence we expect not only to be treated fairly by God but also to be loved by Him. That’s why God is pleased with that attitude more than all the sacrifices we can make. The broken spirit is vulnerable to God’s love and is healed by the blood poured in Calvary.
We must develop a lifestyle where our heart becomes broken and contrite when we fall. We cannot take God’s grace as a game where we sin and then we ask forgiveness lightly. We must break our hearts before God, expose its rotten condition, and allow Him to put it all together with His love and grace over us. We must value our communion with God more than anything by learning how to restore it when we sin. Probably that’s one of the reasons why God hasn’t removed the presence of sin among us. He wants us to love Him strong enough to be willing to break our hearts, to humble ourselves in His presence when buffeted by our sin, and by depending solely in His grace, not in our good efforts.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, please forgive me for not having a broken spirit and a contrite heart. I tried before to please you with good works, with sacrifices, but without a heart of repentance and humility. Please grant me a clean heart that will repel the stain of sin and that will stay humble in your presence. Let your love and grace flow over me in such a way that I become speechless and unable to restore communion with you on my own. Let my faith be placed in the cross alone and in the price you paid for my sin. I know that I will continue sinning in many ways. So please give me a broken spirit to come to you in a way that pleases you and that allows you to heal my brokenness. Amen.

Leading in the Time to Lead

Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the sons of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem…”
1 Chronicles 20: 1


Observation:
David, the man after God’s own heart, was very human. His relationship with God sets a bar for many honest believers that pursue intimacy with the Lord. But also his mistakes help us to have an insight about wisdom lessons that we can apply in our lives. As a leader, king David was phenomenal with an impeccable record until this instance recorded in the first book of Chronicles. It was springtime, which is usually the season where kings go to war. His assignment as a king was to provide safety to the people of Israel and lead the army into battle. In fact, that was the very quality that gave David a good reputation among other world leaders and a respectful love among his own people. But for some reason David decided to rest and let others lead when he was supposed to lead. For the kingdom this decision didn’t brought immediate damage since Joab was very capable to lead and bring the victory to David’s army. But in the long run, the king lost focus in his assignment, got distracted with the lavished lifestyle of the royal treatment, and lost the direction of his heart towards the people and towards God. The assignment that God gave David became secondary due to David’s choices. His placer and comfort became a priority over his calling to lead. And that decision brought too much unnecessary pain to David and to Israel.

Application:
When leaders retrieve to rest in the times when their leadership is necessary, their character and influence is affected negatively. According to Paul, Leadership demands diligence, which implies an extraordinary sense of timing and a superb discernment to be involved in the areas where anointed leadership is needed the most (Rom. 12:8). David came to a point where he lost the correct sense of timing. Instead of fighting and leading, he retrieved to the convenience of the palace. In the same way, many church leaders miss the best opportunities to lead and conquer because they don’t develop the discernment necessary to spot the times when leadership is needed the most. Many church leaders prefer the comfort of compromise and avoid inconveniences and hard work. In a distorted search for effectiveness they settle for shortcuts, poor investments, and status quo. They stay in their desks looking busy but not involved in the specifics of their calling. They work hard in something else rather than in God’s assignment for their lives. Such leaders are destined for poor results and unfruitful ministries.
I truly believe that leaders can be in the highest level of leadership in the books of men but in the very lowest in the books of heaven. Sometimes the success and victories are just a façade for a heart in ruins, a character with serious structural problems, and a ministry that stands tall sustained by toothpicks. They are at the same place where David was at this time. They are at the verge of major moral failure, adding more soap in my slippery slope, ready to be pushed over the cliff. These critical times demand critical solutions. Their life and ministry are at stake here and they themselves are the only person responsible for it. They either focus in their assignment and move on to the next level of leadership or continue in a path of destruction that could affect not only their personal life but their family and hundreds more that follow their lead. The key here is diligence in order to lead in the times of leading. I believe that we are not able to fulfill our call on our own. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit to keep going. We need to go back to the heart of worship and allow Jesus to lead His church through us.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, please forgive me for the multitude of my sins, especially for the times when taking my assignment as a low priority in my life. Please don’t let me hit rock bottom in order to change. Help me to change right now and to completely turn to you the way I’m supposed to. Please have mercy on me, on my family, and on those who follow me. Give me a passion to be a diligent leader that spends his time in leading, not in self-gratification. Help me to steward all the resources you provided for my assignment in a way that honors you. Instead of using them as instruments for sin, help me to redeem them and use them to advance your kingdom in my heart first, and then in the places you entrusted me with leadership. I’m in a critical place in my life. I have a strong sense of being at the most crucial crossroad in my life. My spirit wants to go your way, but my flesh wants to follow the slippery slope. I trust in your power to transform me and to rearrange the condition of my heart. I need your help to become diligent and passionate about leading well. Please Lord, I’m in your hands. Do with me whatever it takes to become the leader you have called me to do. AMEN!

Overflowing Mercy

Then summoning him, his lord said to him, “You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me. Should you not also have mercy on your fellow slave, even as I have mercy on you?”
Matthew 18:32-33


Observation:
The message of the Lord in this parable is clear. We should overflow mercy in all our dealings because the mercy poured out over us has been abundant. When Jesus spoke this parable he used amazing contrasting elements. The master forgave a debt equivalent to 10 million dollars in silver. The slave couldn’t forgive his peers’ debt of one day’s wages. He had mercy valued in 10 million and he couldn’t give mercy worth few cents. The heart of God cannot tolerate lack of mercy in our part, especially when priceless mercy has been given to us. Our lives should overflow with the abundant mercy God had on us. We must be willing to forgive the offenses, the mistakes, the improprieties, and the sin of others. The parable is also clear in suggesting that if we do not overflow in mercy, the mercy given to us will be remove and then we will be forced to pay our debt.

Application:
We get out with the best deal when it comes to extending mercy. The sinful nature and the reality of our existence demands all the mercy for us but is unwilling to give a little mercy to others. But the Lord is pointing out that the amount of mercy we give away reflects the amount of mercy we want for ourselves. We will be in situations where we will have the opportunity to overflow with mercy. We cannot miss those opportunities because our own condition is at risk. By default we must be forgiving and compassionate towards others. The same attitude we use to judge others will be used towards us.
Today the Lord reminds me that the debt I had with him was huge and that everything was taken cared at Calvary. I need to pass out the same mercy and compassion, especially to those who have wrong me. I cannot demand payment and humiliate those who owe me. I must forgive, be patient, and avoid condescending conversations and attitudes. The Lord has been very merciful towards me. I should be merciful to others the same way.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, please forgive me for the times when I didn’t overflow with mercy towards my offenders. Please do not remove your mercy and compassion away from me. I will be completely ruined if I loss your mercy and forced to pay my debt. You have been more than generous when it comes to love and grace over me. I recognize that I’m a sinner in recovery, and I wish I could have a stronger loyalty and determination to follow your ways. Please help me to treat others the same way. Let me bring correction to those who I lead motivated in your overwhelming mercy. AMEN!