A
thought by Mark Batterson, (2015-10-06) from his book, If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God's What If Possibilities (Kindle
Location 3025). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
I
find that so true. Like how I respond
when someone at a stoplight honks at me to get going so I slow down instead of
get going and then my wife calls me out for what I’m doing by saying that isn’t
like me and I have to come up with a good reason for doing it. Or other instances that come to my mind.
Mark says, “Reactions are conditioned reflexes, and they must be reconditioned by
the grace of God. In my experience, they are often the hardest thing and last thing
to get sanctified.”
Earlier
he said, “…we are far more conditioned than we realize. And one dimension of
spiritual growth is being reconditioned by the grace of God. ‘You have heard that it was said . . . but I
say unto you.’ Jesus uses that couplet over and over again. What was He doing?
He was uninstalling Old Testament applications and reinstalling New Testament
truths. It was no longer ‘an eye for an eye.’ Jesus upgraded it to ‘turn the
other cheek,’ and it required reconditioned reflexes.”
But
later he says, “Philippians 2: 12 says, ‘Work out your salvation with fear and
trembling.’ Salvation is a gift from God, so you can’t work for it. But you can work on it. So how do you work it out? Well,
the same way you work out your muscles. If you want to get into good shape,
you’ve got to exercise! And the more you work out, the stronger you become.
You’ve got to take your faith to the gym and bench press it. It will involve some
trembling—that’s what muscles do when they are pushed to their limit. But
that’s how you grow stronger!
There
are many of those conditional reflexes that I need and want to work on. I want to act and react in the image of
Christ. He is truly working in me but
there is also some work that I still need to do.
What
reactions do you need to recondition?
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