Let God throw you a curve, when He sees fit
It's said that God is not as concerned about individual sins in our lives as He is the pattern of sinfulness.
That's to say, He forgives us -- forgives and forgets the transgression for good -- as long as we correct the errant pattern.
One who glimpsed a "life review" on the other side says she saw a man whose sin had been forgiven, but that when he repeated it, all the times he had sinned in this way came flying back onto his record. He was back to square one.
The lesson: It's the tendency, the routine, the inclination, that we should purge -- breaking and casting it out as we would any spirit: not just always asking forgiveness. "So a curse without cause does not alight," says Proverbs 26. "Like a dog that returns to its vomit; is a fool who repeats his folly." (How blunt Scripture can be!)
Name it and command it away, with permanence -- and do this every time the inclination arises. ("In Jesus Name, I break and cast out the spirit of lust/gluttony/sloth/gossip/criticality," you might pray -- naming exactly whatever's behind your imperfection.)
Often, these patterns are in our internal dialogue -- when we are speaking interiorly (thought talk) or visualizing things. Saints call it our interior life. If it's in your thought process, the sin may occur several times a minute!
When a bad thought arises, stop yourself immediately (mentally) and say, "Wrong pattern," or simply: "Jesus."
For example: If your first instinct is to look at a situation or person negatively or with any anger or lust or jealousy or temper -- especially ill thoughts -- you need to expunge that. Practice makes perfect -- stopping yourself and replacing wrong with right, the negative with the positive, is what works; soon, you will have established a holy pattern.
What's a pattern?
It's a trend. It's a routine. It's a routeway -- a path. It's what we repeat and trample upon. The very word "errant" comes from two verbs, one the Latin errare, meaning "to wander" or "to err" and the second, errer, meant "to travel," and traces to the Latin iter, meaning "road" or "journey."
An errant pattern takes us closer to God or farther from Him.
Often, we hurt ourselves by plodding on the same path over and again, never changing, never allowing God to intervene. We're too stiff. Sometimes our paths should be the "straight and narrow," of course -- stiff in that sense -- but God wants us to approach life totally led by Him. That means not straight lines but curves; it's the winding road that takes us to the mountaintop (that takes us to new heights). A home-run really sails when we hit a curve ball.
When we are too "strait-laced" (trying to control everything ourselves, in a mechanical way, as if we are our own gods; all rigid lines) we don't progress like we might otherwise.
Wrong pattern. He looks for "a new and right spirit" (Psalms 51:10).
Straight lines are the creation not of God but of engineers. What in nature is perfectly straight? (Even light bends.)
The Lord must be given room to operate. He must have the opportunity to stay or change our course. He is a God of surprise -- and takes us on paths we cannot imagine! All to our good.
Look at every twist (however painful) as excitement. The Lord wants us to be natural -- diligent, but flexible; open to His prompts; allowing His input in everything. He wants us to work hard at our missions yet be joyful and carefree. Joy grants energy.
The mountaintop:
Yes, some guessing; some suffering; all handled with: faith.
It's faith that allows us to go on such a journey without fear of what's around the bend. It's faith that purifies the robe we will gain in paradise.
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- His good, pleasing and perfect will," advises Romans 12:2.
And as a new book called Seated With Christ points out, we get too wrapped up in pleasing the world -- in comparing ourselves to others -- rather than in simply "sitting with God" and accepting the role He has for us: breaking out of artificial patterns that we've created and imposed (on ourselves) through a wrong pattern of thinking.
Bust out of that. Let God form your pattern.
"When we're seated with Christ, the difference is that Jesus is with us, and we are looking at our sin together," says the author, Heather Holleman. "He is giving us the power to change. He isn't shaking His Finger or turning His Face away when we come to Him with a repentant hear. He's ready to embrace us in the midst of our sin. He loves me. He loves you. He delights in us. We are seated in this delight and acceptance."
[resources: Seated With Christ]
Spirit Daily on Twitter Facebook
Donations: we need and appreciate them!