Snared! #3

Let’s say that you are struggling with a sin. You are praying for the Lord to deliver you. What exactly is it that you expect to happen? Do you expect to have some kind of a power experience that reduces the fire in the evil desire?

What might we expect on the basis of 2 Tim. 2:24-26? We would expect the Holy Spirit to help us to see things in a new light. The reason I am feeling what I am feeling is that I am thinking what I’m thinking. If I change my thinking, I will have a different emotional response. I may actually end up with feelings and emotions that don’t even want to do the sin any more.

“My name is Cain. I used to have a real problem with bitterness toward my younger brother. It seemed like than whenever I saw my brother I would be reminded of things about him that made me angry. Mom and dad always seemed to prefer him over me. I would brood about the times when it seemed like he was getting attention that should have been going to me.”

“Then one day I found out that God liked my little brother more than He liked me. It wasn’t just my parents, it was God! God accepted my little brother’s worship, but He rejected mine. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I started fantasizing about something awful, some kind of accident happening to my little brother. Then, I’m so ashamed to think this, I started to fantasize about doing harm to him.”

“But then God spoke to me. He told me that sin was crouching at my door, like an animal planning to kill and eat me. He told me that if I did not master sin that it would master me. So I decided to pray. I got really desperate and I cried out to God.”

“And suddenly I found myself thinking about things in a new way. What would it do to my parents and to the rest of my family if anything happened to Able? They would be heartbroken. And how would they feel about me if they found out what I did? Every human relationship I had would be at risk. They might even decide to do to me what I was thinking about doing to Able!”

“Then I got to thinking about this whole sacrifice thing. I’m a farmer. I love to work the soil. Able doesn’t have a green thumb. He can’t make things grow. But he has an affinity to animals. It just seemed natural to both of us to make a sacrifice to God from the fruit of our labors. So Able offered a lamb. But when I offered produce, God rejected my offering. But when I stopped being angry and really started to think about it, I realized that God wasn’t playing favorites. He demands a blood sacrifice for sin. If Able had been the farmer and I had been the herdsman, Able would have made the same mistake I did. All I had to do was trade some grain to Able for a lamb and offer the lamb to God. And my offering was accepted.”

“I’m terrified now when I think about what almost happened to me. It was like I was obsessed with hating my brother. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. But when I started to think about it from a different perspective, and I saw where my emotions were about to lead me, it changed everything.”

“I think the real breakthrough came when I realized that this thing was actually trying to control me. I thought I was in control. I was angry at Able. I liked being angry with him. But God warned me that this sin thing was crouching, about to spring on me and take me captive. I wasn’t really in control. As long as I allowed my mind to dwell on hating Able, the power of the hatred got stronger and stronger.”

“There is something out there and it almost got me. I know you may find this hard to believe, but I really think I was going to kill Able. I was planning to get him to come out in the field where no one else was around and hit him on the back of his head with a rock when his back was turned to me. As I look back on it, it’s almost as if I was loosing my mind. I mean, really, think about it. Hitting your brother on the head with a rock and killing him. I’m glad that I took the time to really, really think about that warning God gave me. Now, when I’m tempted to think hateful thoughts about Able, I force myself to think about something good about my brother. And then I remind myself at how close I came to killing him and imagine the look on my mother’s face if she heard that he was dead. If she heard that I had killed him. When I think of these thoughts, it’s as if I were pouring a bucket of ice water of the fire of my desire to kill him.”

“I’m so very glad God spoke to me and I listened. It’s almost as if I was loosing my mind, and then I returned to the land of sanity.”