Jesus addressed the issue of sin using murder: The murder of certain body parts! This wasn’t a literal but sarcastic measure! For example, when He said that if an eye causes you to sin, you rather gouge it out and enter the afterlife half blind; than having full eyesight but get knocked into hell forever. (Matt 18:9)
Many of us have kept sinning, and none has gouged out their eye! None of the disciples did, and many sit as members upon the committee of the twenty four elders.
The Lord was teaching me recently that what He meant by this, was to cut off the sense of sight towards particular sin or agents of it! As much as we have the fruit of self-control by the Holy Spirit, the tree needs to be pruned or thinned to enable its flourishing and growth. The pruning happens amidst some situations, pretty much like the fruit of patience requires some suffering to mature in someone.
So how does the pruning look like?
The internet is full of avenues of wickedness and yet it can’t be ignored that easily. With improved privacy, anyone can masturbate, or lust anywhere, at any time of day! Yes — even a christian! Depending on what level of maturity one is, some should have outgrown this. Others — could still be in the cycles of addiction.
Whatever the case, Jesus expects you to do something about it. If you have been convicted of your sin, or heard the Holy Spirit tell you to stop passing through or standing in that ‘path of sinners’, but you stubbornly continue, you could be choking the fruit of self-control!
Perhaps you are praying for that very self-control. But you continue to stalk and spy on that girl’s instagram account — not because she’s merely beautiful, but because you imagine yourself rumpy pumpy with her. It could as well be the vice versa.
It could be idols, and celebrities … getting us to pray that God made us as curvy or as rich as them. Whatever the example, I believe you understand what I do mean.
I was getting sick from these stories and posts and statuses from such people. I am not the kind who do social media fasts! Since I do some preaching here and there online. So for my case, I’d hear the Holy Spirit say, “Mute them … Block them … Unfollow … etc.”
I noticed that when I obeyed such, I was gouging out an eye or two indirectly.
Just like the Cherubim are made up of eyes in the book of Ezekiel, the world has found a way of giving us many eyes everywhere. The point about these eyes is, they grant us access to so much: knowledge and awareness! But also, these eyes grant us distractions and bondage stopping us from focusing!
Adding it all with the sinful nature, gets someone into a corner where the devil wants them. Thus the relevance of Jesus’ admonition!
So if the bar still polarizes you, how about you avoid the road to it as much. If the friends still go, and you see their photos on updates, how about you mute them for good — that is especially if they mock you for sobering up, be it for your health or new beliefs.
The cloth line or restaurant tempts you into over shopping, over spending & gluttony; disable notifications from its pages or app! The secular music is making you feel some type of way — delete it! You have God’s help not to look back.
These all are one way of indirectly gouging out our eyes from seeing particular things that might stunt us. And in so doing, our minds receive less and less visuals from these, which in turn reduces its opportunities to meditate on filth, or covetousness, or envy … and enables us to live more righteously unto God starting from the purification of our minds.
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