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MARCH: Jesus' Prayer for Us

March 26

PARTICULAR SINS

…the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling.
Ephesians 1:18

The New Testament method of dealing with particular sins is never to concentrate upon the particular sin as such, but to bring it into the light and the context of the whole Christian position. I cannot emphasize that principle too strongly. Speaking out of pastoral experience, I have found in practice that this particular principle is probably the most important of all.

May I give you one illustration? I remember a lady once, some twenty years ago, coming to tell me of a crippling problem in her spiritual life. She told me that she had a terrible horror and dread of thunderstorms. Apparently she had once been in a bad thunderstorm, and it had looked as if she might be killed. Ever since then the fear of thunder and lightning had gripped her, and it had come to such a pass that if she was going to a place of worship and happened to see a large cloud, she would begin to say to herself, “A thunderstorm is coming!” So there would be a terrible conflict within her, and it usually ended in her turning back and going home. It seemed to her that the one problem of her life was this fear and dread of thunderstorms. She told me she had struggled with this problem and had done her best to get rid of it.

Now it seemed to me that the one thing to say to that woman was this—and it came as a shock to her, “Stop praying about this particular fear, for while you are praying, you are reminding yourself of it. You must stop thinking about yourself in terms of fear. Never think about thunderstorms; turn your back upon that altogether.You must think of yourself as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and as one who belongs to Him. You must concentrate upon positive Christianity, not upon a negative fear.”

A Thought to Ponder
Bring a particular sin into the light and context of the whole Christian position.

From Sanctified Through the Truth, pp. 77-78.



Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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