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Purity Spotlight
Time for a Good Spring Cleaning
One of my favorite times of year is springtime. The gentle rains that bring new life. The budding flowers and trees. The warmer weather. It is a time when nature seems to wake up and remind the watching world that God is faithful, even when it doesn't appear so. Spring also seems like a great time to take inventory of our emotional and spiritual selves, clean out the clutter, and then establish a game plan for maturing throughout the remainder of the year.
How can you take this emotional and spiritual inventory? Here are some suggestions for evaluating where you are to determine what changes need to take place.
1. Assess your moral boundaries.
Every year comes with its own share of challenges and temptations. When we grow tired in holding our boundaries firm we let some dirt creep in. We need to assess our boundaries and see where we have let the dirt in. Some good places to start this assessment is in your home. What boundaries are on your television and internet? What types of music or talk radio are you allowing into your house? Have your standards slipped a notch since last spring? Assess these boundaries and determine to hold to the high standard of purity God desires. (Eph. 5:3)
2. Assess your emotional health.
Emotions are a mysterious thing. God intentionally designed us to have emotions, yet because of sin, they often lie to us. Our society screams at us from every direction to "trust yourself," and quite often we buy into this lie. We base our decisions on the current mood we are in, somehow believing that this will lead to real contentment. But trusting our emotions is a dangerous game. How are we to know if the "good feeling" we have about a decision is trustworthy if we don't have benchmark of truth upon which to balance it? We need to examine our emotions and determine if we are living in truth or not.
Assessing your emotional health may require some outside help. Contact our ministry for help in locating a quality counselor in your area.
3. Assess your spiritual direction.
We all get tired. Life can be complex, confusing, and chaotic. Spouse, kids, work, church, sickness, addictions, and many other issues can distract us and draw us away from our First Love. Our perpetual "busyness" has drown out the still, small voice of the Lover of our souls. How much easier is it to plan out your week of work and family activities than it is to sit in silent prayer before God? For most of us the answer is MUCH EASIER. We need an honest assessment of the spiritual drift that may have occurred over the past year. Let us use this wonderful time of new life to ask God to renew our passion and desire for Him. May we grow in our wonder and amazement of His goodness and grace toward us. Let's fight against the many distractions that pull us toward self-centered lives, and instead rest in the sovereign grasp of the One who has our best in mind.
This spring I challenge you to take one step toward a new journey. Maybe for some of you this will be just another step in a direction you have been pursuing for some time. Praise the Lord if that is the case. For others, it may be your first step toward a healthy, godly life. Either way, may we all press on, knowing that God promises to "grow us up" and complete the good work He began in us. He will cause the growth, we must simply be open to receive the watering...
Real Answers to Real Questions
Real Question: When it comes to current lust battles and/or past experiences, how do you determine what to discuss and when with a girlfriend, fiance, or wife?
Real Answer: I believe there are "levels" to discussing our weaknesses with others. A girlfriend (someone to whom you have not made a "real" commitment) probably needs to know that you are like every other man on the planet and have struggles with lustful thoughts. A fiance (someone to whom you have pledged to make a real commitment) needs to know about skeletons in your closet and to what degree you currently struggle with lust. She also needs to know what your practical strategy is for healing from old wounds and pursuing a lifestyle of purity. A wife (someone to whom you have made a lifelong commitment) needs total transparency - no secrets, nothing hidden. Oneness in marriage cannot be achieved when there are secrets.
Timing is important when discussing such a vulnerable issue. Sitting at a baseball game scarfing down cheap hot dogs is probably not the best time to bring up this topic. Also, if your girlfriend, fiance, or wife has just experienced an emotional difficulty (fight with a friend, bad day at work, etc.), it might be best to talk later about your lust struggles (but not use this as an excuse to never bring it up). A good thing to keep in mind when approaching your girlfriend, fiance, or wife about your struggles is that she needs to know that she can be safe with you, and that she is not the cause of your struggle. It may be helpful to seek professional counseling if you have particularly abusive or addictive patterns in your struggles.
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Do you have a real question you need answered? If so, email it to us at questions@bebroken.com.
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Featured Resource
Naked & Unashamed
by Bill Mills
Naked & Unashamed offers a spiritual blueprint for recapturing and deepening intimacy in your family. Too often sharp words and steely indifference drive wedges between us. We hunger for intimacy, yet we hide from each other. Naked & Unashamed is an encouraging study of the early chapters of Genesis.
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