The Sound of Forehands Clapping

Romans 14
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Paul says elsewhere that “all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.”   In the text above we see this principle teased out some.    Most Christians have heard of this principle and can intellecuatly nod their assent to it.  This passage though calls us to much more then just an acknowledgment that “while some things aren’t sin we still shouldn’t do them.”

Paul says that “each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”  Fully convinced of what?  Fully convinced that our choices in this short, earthly life are being made from a mindset of Christ being the supreme Lord of our flesh and of our spirit and that each thing we do and think and say should be in honor to Him, not simply in exercise of our freedom.

Paul also says that “each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”  He doesn’t say that “each is fully convinced” because by nature we are, well, lazy.  “We’re free! Thinking through these things is hard and heavy.  It doesn’t feel free!” There’s a Mars Hill song that has a line “It’s not for freedoms sake that Christ set us free.”  We have been set free from slavery to sin so that we might be made slaves to Him!

So, maybe you are one of those wonder types that has a huge quantity of mental ram and never needs to work through ideas by writing things down.  Good for you.  Now, for the rest of us, might I suggest an exercise to help follow Pauls instructions for each one of us to be resolved as to what lawful things in our lives are actually helpful in honoring Him.

It was a couple of years ago that I did this and I believe it was out of inspiration from Jonathen Edwards example.  What I did was simply to ask myself “Dwayne what are you convinced that your day to day life should look like and what are you convinced will help you to do that?”  Then I wrote down my answers in bullet form.  Here they are:

Resolution 1: To lie down early five times a week.

Resolution 2: To arise early five times a week.

Resolution 3: To not drink beer three nights in a row.

Resolution 4: To fight the battle each day.

Resolution 5: To humble myself always.

Resolution 6: To take captive each thought.

Resolution 7: To delight in Him ceaselessly.

Resolution 8: To fight for my wife’s heart

Resolution 9: To not rest until my children know my love.

Resolution 10: To eat three healthy meals a day five days a week.

Resolution 11: To replenish His temple throughout each day with water.

Resolution 12: To consider how I might stir up my friends to good works and love.

Resolution 13: To be confident in my calling.

Resolution 14: To drink scripture regularly.

Resolution 15: To listen to those who came before me.

Resolution 16: To seek counsel.

Resolution 17: To be before His face always.

Now, let’s be honest here.  I haven’t seen this list for probably a good year since it popped in my head last week.  Yet as I read them my conscience is stirred and, yes yes, I am convinced in my mind that these are the things I should be doing.  So I’ll add one  new resolution (and a recurring event on my calendar to go with it):

Resolution 18: Remember to read and pray over these Resolutions once a week.

Would you consider taking 10 to 20 minutes to briefly write down your own convictions and ask the Helper to enable you to live by them?   To get you started, would you share with us the first one or two that come to mind for you?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Self Discipline, Stirring One Another Up, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.