"My sins have been bound into a yoke; by his hands they were woven together. They have come upon my neck and the LORD has sapped my strength. He has handed me over to those I cannot withstand." - Lamentations 1:14
What does it mean that the LORD "has handed me over to those I cannot withstand"?
For whatever other things it could mean, one thing it does mean is this: whatever you feed will be the strongest.
It is a way that God made things to work. The more you feed something, the stronger it becomes.
The internationally-noted Atlanta preacher, Andy Stanley, talks about this very plainly in his book "Enemies of the Heart". The more you feed something, the stronger it becomes.
God made us to hunger for God as we hear in Psalm 42:1, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." If we would surrender to the Holy Spirit and feed our hunger for God, then our hunger for God and God's word and God's wisdom would grow stronger.
But when we feed our hunger for the things of the world, like food or sex or violence or sugar or risqué tv or money or sports or alcohol or anger or pornography or power or material stuff, then our appetite for those things is actually not satisfied, but our appetite for those things grows. Before long, the appetite has become a strong appetite which becomes an addiction. It happens because it's a way that God made things to work. The more you feed something, the stronger it becomes.
This is the Order of Creation that's at work in Romans 1, where God inspires St. Paul to write: "Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts." (Romans 1:24-26a)
What are you hungry for? Is it something constructive of God? Or are you hungry for something destructive of the world?
If you're hungry for God and His truly satisfying word and His life-giving ways, then keep going and feed that hunger with God's word.
But if you're hungry for the perishing things and destructive ways of the world, take it to God. There may be medical elements to your growing appetite for perishing things, but ultimately God is The Great Physician who is able to truly free you because ultimately every matter is a matter of the heart. And being made in the image of God, God made our hearts to hunger for God as we hear in Psalm 42:1, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God."
Think about it. Pray about it. And I hope you might even grab Andy Stanley's book, "Enemies of the Heart". Pastor Stanley is truly God's servant to help us understand from scripture that the more you feed something, the stronger it becomes.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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