Unleavened Christian life

Unleavened Christian life

Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.

1Corinthians 5:6-8 (New Living Translation)

In our earlier discussion, we got to learn how Spiritual Pride affects us in our everyday living. Pride always gets accompanied by boasting which is fairly straight forward. We do not realize and brag about ourselves which is against the law. We speak the truth accompanied by slight boasting which we feel to be fine and not a lie or a sin as we think that we spoke the truth followed by just a little boasting. We feel it's worth it and God's not angry but this is not what the scripture says. If we follow the scripture it's a completely different prospect. 

The apostle Paul gives a vivid description in this context. He gives the example of leaven. At times leaven is had by us as a delicacy but other times we feel it as something miserable. In this example Paul is not taking leaven as a delicacy but otherwise. Bread is like a necessity for everyday living. We eat bread almost daily. If we come across leaven on bread, we try to take it off or throw away the whole bread. Just as a little leaven leavens the whole lump of bread disappointing us and resulting in us throwing off the entire bread. Similarly, slight boasting coming from 'spiritual pride' results in a small amount of sin and this tiny sin results in the devastation of our entire Christian living. 

Just as we get rid of yeast from our bread,  the church is encouraged to get rid of the yeast i.e sin. We have to sanctify ourselves into new bread by getting off the old yeast (sin) being sinless as we are a new creation in Christ. Christ crucified Himself for the forgiveness of our sins. We have a chance to be saved. Our sins have been forgiven and we can sanctify ourselves into fresh dough. 

Hence, we are being encouraged to live not with the old yeast with wickedness and malice but without yeast, living a spiritually sinless Christian life with sincerity and truth celebrating our redemption.

Message for the week:

We feel proud of ourselves when we initiate boasting which develops from Spiritual Pride. Thinking of ourselves as sanctified then, is a misconception and we are encouraged to try and stop such acts and live a "spiritually sinless Christian life with sincerity and truth". Recite this short prayer with me, "Lord, I realize that spiritual pride is hard for me to get rid of, leading me to be leavened and thrown away. I hereby wish to sanctify myself and get rid of all the leaven. Help me out in living an unleavened Christian life."

Amen

God bless you

If you’d like God’s healing hand placed on you or anyone else you know of, please do visit our Prayer Cell

 God willing

You must not test the Lord your God as you did when you complained at Massah.

Deuteronomy 6:16 (New Living Translation)

Then the devil took Him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If You are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,

‘He will order His angels to protect and guard You.

And they will hold You up with their hands

so You won’t even hurt Your foot on a stone.’ ”

Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’ ”

Luke 4:9-12 (New Living Translation)

 

There are circumstances in our life when we often say "if God wants this to happen, it will take place" or "God willing...." We rely that God knows what we want and He will provide us with the same. But we forget that by using the word "if" we put the Lord into test. Do we not trust our God, the creator of the entire universe? Why do we say then, "if the Lord wants.....” We, as believers must proclaim our faith through our words. We should not say "if the Lord wants..."rather say ".....yes, this will take place. My faith tells me so"

Jesus himself proclaimed in this context. Satan tried to trick Jesus' authority of Him being the Son of God. Satan told Him if He was God's son He could throw himself down a certain point of the temple that was the highest and the angels would carry Him and not let even a single stone touch His feet. By using the word 'if', Satan tried to test God's son over His authority. Jesus replied "Never put the Lord your God to test". 


We, being spiritually strong lest we put God in tests in our everyday living and when we succeed, we feel our prayer's been answered and we praise Him. If otherwise, we feel God has something better in store for us or in extreme cases, we lose our hope in God. 

Whatever be the circumstances, we can give a positive answer in faith or pray for the same. Also we have been given a brain to think if its achievable otherwise give a negative answer if we feel so. If we are unsure of the answer we can say it out, “but without using statements like ‘God willing...’ ”. 


Its quite prominent that we being humans, having used such statements since childhood feel quite difficult to adapt ourselves to this change of trying not to use such statements. Our first reaction would be “God willing, I will stop myself”. This is our first step we need to examine. Why are we putting our God to test again? We are able enough to try and change ourselves. If we desire, we can control our speech and watch our words. This particular scenario can be utilized in many different aspects in our life. 

Message for the week:

If we are intending to live by the Word, we are able enough to change ourselves. We need not depend on God and wait for Him to change us. Depending on God to change us is equivalent to putting Him to test. He has equipped us with His SPIRIT that will guide us whilst not doubting him and grow spiritually. Recite this short prayer with me, "Lord, I am willing to change myself and grow spiritually in your name. My faith will lead your Spirit to guide me that I am able to not put you into test. Help me live by the Word and change myself.”

Amen

God bless you

If you’d like God’s healing hand placed on you or anyone else you know of, please do visit our Prayer Cell prayer-cell.blogspot.com.au