July Reflection, By Ron Klein

Have you ever felt remorse and tried to understand why you thought, said, or behaved in a less than honorable fashion?  Consider the fish which reacts only on it’s instincts and gets itself in a lot of trouble.  It sees food or a territorial threat and strikes out, getting hooked by the fisherman.  Just like the fish, we often act in what has been called our “survival mode”.  When we are in survival mode, we do whatever we need to do at the moment to cope and survive into the next moment.  The adrenalin is rushing and we channel our pain and anger and fright toward immediate focused action, so to speak, saving ourselves.  Honestly, most of our life situations are not truly physical life-or-death survival situations.  We can have destructive thoughts and behavior that does not fit the true reality that God sees.  We have been lured in.

In thinking about why this happens, it may be because while our physical life is not being threatened, something deep down inside us does feel threatened.  It may be our sense of worth and belonging, or our sense of control and power, or our sense of getting what we want. The more we are able to rest in and trust God’s love for us and His providence over us, the less we will feel threatened by all these secondary life circumstances.  He is saving us.  This frees and empowers us to respond in a sacred way.

Each moment becomes an opportunity to do that which brings glory to God rather than that which the sinful self is demanding.  Small, selfless, everyday actions are building the kingdom of God’s reign.  Imagine a world filled with people who are listening and yielding to God’s Spirit living in them.  That starts with each of us right now.  The only thing that will feel threatened by this is our old sin nature which has been in survival mode ever since the Garden of Eden when the serpent hooked us.

“Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?  Thank God!  The answer is in Christ Jesus our Lord. …  the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus …  no longer follow your sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”  Rom. 7:24-25; 8:2,4 NLT  By careful observation, see if you can spot some of  your old sin nature’s attempts at survival this week.

***Ron Klein will be preaching at BCC on August 4.  We are excited to hear more from him then!