Whim

The Holy Spirit has been given us to guide us into all truth. As we are sensitive to His leading, He teaches us God's truth, explains to us the thoughts of God revealed in His Word, and directs our behavior in line with the truths we have been taught. He is consistent in His directions. Unfortunately, we live in an age that has substituted preference for truth--for faith. We have decided that our personal ideas are legitimate commentaries on Scripture. We fit the Word of God into our lifestyles instead of adjusting our lifestyles to the teachings of God's Word. We have replaced faith with whim.
One of the areas always influenced by such leanings is our attitude toward the world. When we determine for ourselves how to live, we are always caught up in the things of the world and the pleasures we think they can afford us. But the Spirit always leads to righteous behavior. He is not a lover of the world or the things in the world. And there is no excuse for our not knowing that. When I believe that since I am redeemed by grace I can live anyway I please, I am in great error. Such a mindset and the behavior it produces cannot be tolerated by the holy God. As He told the church at Laodicea, He would rather we be cold than lukewarm. I believe that a Christian whose lifestyle is indistinguishable from the world's lifestyle yet claims that that is a lifestyle that the Holy Spirit has led him to is worse than the secret Christian who just lives like the world without claiming to be a child of God. The lukewarm Christian like the nation of Israel in the Old Testament blasphemes the name of God. When our Christian liberty causes us to violate God's truths, we are grieving the Holy Spirit that lives in us. We are sinning against His love for us--and the truth He has taught us. And misplaced love always turns our hearts to the wrong treasure. And the wrong treasure always puts us under the deception of the wrong master. Thus, the longer we pursue the wrong treasures, the more we are convinced that they are the right ones. We live in the dark convinced we are walking in the light. And the only way God can bring us back to the right love and the control of the Spirit He has placed within us is to take away our treasures. Trust me. It is better to live rightly and to love rightly with those other things in their proper place than to lose them all. But our God is a jealous God who loves us enough to return us to the right path for His Name's sake and for our good--no matter what the cost.