I Want What I Want

The familiar story of Jonah illustrates the approaches employed to address the deeper problem of the nature of sin. God was seeking to save a people while salvaging a prophet. Resistance and self-sufficiency jumped to the forefront as fear, evidenced by anger, gripped Jonah’s heart at the thought that God would not judge the wicked Ninevites. Jonah’s strategy to resolve the crisis was to ensure that God would destroy the people of Nineveh. Believing he could thwart God’s plan by refusing to participate, Jonah asserted his willfulness to create his own redemptive process. Unwilling to trust God, Jonah allowed his bitterness to fester and employed his own creative solutions. The story ends with God in the process of salvaging Jonah by showing him he has no ability to independently restore control to his life, because God’s plan will prevail.

BIBLE TRUTH
“Those who worship false gods
      turn their backs on all God’s mercies" (Jonah 2:8 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
Our exhausted supply of resources leaves us alienated. Loneliness invades as our thwarted efforts become evident. The emptiness of our hearts tempts us to continue the vicious cycle of seeking God-substitutes to fill the void. With continued resolve we contrive another plan of employing people, positions, and possessions for our power to live. Eventually the futility of the endeavor becomes evident through social rejection, compromised health, and a lack of personal energy to pursue the pathological dream. Alienated souls now stand stranded beside the road they thought would take them to the place of completion.
“See, they are all foolish, worthless things.
      All your idols are as empty as the wind” (Isa. 41:29 NLT).

PRAYER
LORD, I am crying out to you in my great trouble. I know you will hear and answer me. I am sinking beneath the waves and the waters are closing over me. As my life is slipping away, I am reminded of you, for my salvation comes from you alone. Therefore, I will offer sacrifices to you with the songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. (Jonah 2:1–9)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)


We would love for you to share in the COMMENTS the insights you have received on your journey.

The Unending Cycle

Independent inclinations thrust individuals further into crisis, which perpetuates an unending cycle of futility. At best, self-effort can only temporarily affect the crisis of our lives; it can do nothing to address the deeper problem of sin. In fact, self-effort exacerbates the problem, actually increasing the intensity of the nature of sin’s impact on us. Now we have, as a result of our best solutions, even more guilt, shame, and fear. We are even more alienated from God than before. We only sink deeper into the bondage of our sinfulness. Because of humanity’s depravity, we are stuck in the unending, self-perpetuating cycle. Demoting God as the authority; promoting self as the authority; and exploiting people, positions, and possessions for personal empowerment characterize self’s redemptive process.

BIBLE TRUTH
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires" (2 Peter 1:3–4 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
Despite our best efforts, our plans cannot measure up to God’s design. Our feeble attempts to live independently from God result in disastrous consequences. Perversion propels us to further crisis, although God continues to assert His truth that we must be desperately dependent on Him in every area of our lives. Through Christ’s redemptive process we have a new set of options that can overcome guilt, shame, and fear with an overflow of His love, joy, and peace if we are willing to be desperately dependent.

PRAYER
Finally, Lord, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Thank you! (Ps. 32:5)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)


We would love for you to share in the COMMENTS the insights you have received on your journey.

Dormant Deliverance

The nature of our sin produces continual crisis. Our current line of solutions is not working to resolve the guilt, shame, and fear inherent to the sinfulness. In an attempt to resolve our crisis produced by the nature of sin, we seek deliverance. God has designed us to live within a context of love, joy, and peace. We are not designed to live in a constant state of pressure, stress, and anxiety. But the nature of sin brings these traumatizing by-products along with the guilt, shame, and fear that are embedded in the sin nature. The craving for love, joy, and peace is a residual part of the image of God lying dormant within our souls that is searching for redemption. We cannot stay in our crisis. The need for restored control and resulting peace prompt the search. Motivated by crisis, people inevitably embrace their redemptive need. Invariably this promotes a redemptive process to meet the redemptive demand.

BIBLE TRUTH
“You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. . . . They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly" (2 Tim. 3:1, 5 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
Although God desires His creation to seek Him for redemption, we continue to devise our own salvation strategies to dissipate the conflicts. Compelled by the redemptive need, all of humanity will either employ self’s redemptive process, or choose participation in Christ’s redemptive process. Self-effort naturally embraces the lie of the sin nature that states we can be complete apart from Christ. This perversion contradicts God’s truth that we can only be complete in Christ. Two choices are laid before us. Either we continue in our way ever seeking new remedies to meet the demands of our soul, or we seek peace through Christ. May we be willing to give up our solutions for His salvation.

PRAYER
Lord, when I refuse to confess my sin, my body wastes away, and I groan all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline is heavy on me. My strength evaporates like water in the summer heat. So, Lord, I confess my sin to you. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. (Ps. 32:3; Ps. 51:12)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)


We would love for you to share in the COMMENTS the insights you have received on your journey.

My Behaviors Are My Solutions

In spite of our best efforts, our behaviors are only our inadequate solutions aimed at resolving the deeper problem. This deeper problem cannot be resolved by our own power no matter how diligent the endeavor. The implementation of our solutions drives our lives. We utilize all our energy and try to employ others to facilitate our remedy. But as we pursue various resolutions to this deeper problem, we only add more problems to our lives. It permeates all we do.

BIBLE TRUTH
“But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me" (Rom. 7:23 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
The deeper problem is best defined as the nature of sin that resides within all of us. This nature of sin is incorporated into the essence of who we are. All aspects of our being are infected, not just affected, by sin. This sin nature controls our desires and the behaviors we choose, and establishes our state of being. Because of the sin nature life is dominated by guilt, shame, fear, anger, loneliness, and a propensity to seek self-interest. Brokenness leads to Christ's redemptive process, which delivers us from the deeper problem of sin.

PRAYER
Father, I long to experience the joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, I desire to rejoice as those whose record the LORD has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! (Ps. 32:1–2)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)


We would love for you to share in the COMMENTS the insights you have received on your journey.