I thought I would start sharing the lessons I have been helping with at church. The book we are studying is "The Pursuit of Holiness" by Jerry Bridges. Below is an overview of the lesson and discussion that followed in class.
Chapter 13 Holiness and Our Wills
- It is the will that chooses to yield to temptation or to say no
- We must learn to bring our wills into submission and obedience
to the will of God on a practical,, daily, hour-by hour basis
- Emotions get the upper hand and draw both reason and will from
obedience to God
Below is a small example of what occurs with our emotions when
we don’t seek God’s wisdom and help when dealing with our sinful nature.
The outward emotions, that are a result of this, are things that you can’t take
back and in most cases are very damaging to others. The example below is
one from my personal evaluation. I struggle with anger more than any
other emotion. The things that are said in anger are very hard to take
back.
Only with God’s help can we fight this battle. As I
struggle with anger I realize the earlier I catch the emotion and seek help
from God, the less likely that emotion is to explode outward and hurt those
around me. I still deal with that emotion on the inside. We must
all constantly filter our feeling through the Word and “set our hearts and MINDS on
things above”. I raise my hand first to show that I struggle with my
emotions and relying on God to help.
Chapter 14 goes on to discuss habits and the 4 principles of
habits.
By our very nature we are sinners. We struggle with the
evil that is in our hearts. Changing our evils ways is a fight to say the
least. Habits are defined as prevailing disposition of character of a
person’s thoughts and feelings. Knowing we sin and have sinful habits is
the first step, but we are called to throw off our old self. Below is a
principles to creating a new habit and in this case Godly habits.
Principles to a habit
- Frequent
Repetition – doing it over and over until the new habit is second nature
- Never
let an exception occur – “I’m too tired” or “I don’t have enough time” can’t be
an excuse
- Diligence
in all areas is required to ensure success in one area – to break a habit make
sure you don’t let other areas of your life fall back to your sinful nature
- Don’t
be discouraged by failure – The only time we fail is if we stop trying.
Get back up and start again, anything worth doing is worth the up and down of
the journey.
It is very important to remember that “Breaking sinful habits
must be done in cooperation with the Holy Spirit and in dependence upon
God”. “The battle for holiness must be fought on two fronts, without and
within. Only then will we see progress toward holiness”
There are quite a few good verses from the two chapters from
this week.
Philippians 2:13
Man’s fall and the corruption
Ephesians 4:18
Ephesians 2:3
John 5:40
Growing process
Romans 12:2
Colossians 3:1
James 4:7
Compelling Forces
Ephesians 2:2
James 1:14
Guarding our minds
Proverbs 4:23
Philippians 2:12-13
Psalm 119:9
Proverbs 2:10-12
Proverbs 2:6
Proverbs 2:1-5
Habits
Romans 6:19
1 Timoth 4:7
Romans 8:13
There are many more, but thought I would stop there.
Blessings to each of you
