In Florida, flip flops are considered common, everyday, year-round footwear for the locals. They are not strictly for the beach! I wore them to take Pauly out for a walk. I wore them to drive to my Mom's. I wore them to a casual luncheon. And I wore them for a late birthday dinner with friends at a nice little Italian restaurant. My RED flip flops were everywhere today!Throughout the day, I found myself pondering an interesting observation I made. This gal I know was talking about how an old friend of hers had recently straight out lied about her to others. This angered my friend.
"Why would she do that?" she asked me.
"Doesn't she know who I am?
I could let out a tongue lashing that would destroy her!"
"But that's not who you are," I responded.
"Well not anymore...
but there was a day when that's exactly
what I would have done," she retorted.
That's when the light came on. I realized that my friend's "old nature"
saw a potential opportunity to resurrect itself. Those words of...
"what she could do" were not her own. They were the ways and words of the "old her." That's how she used to react to things before she knew Christ.
Romans 6:6
"For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless that we should no longer be slaves to sin..."
Galatians 2:20
"My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."
Galatians 5:24
"Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there."
The good news is that my friend no longer outwardly responds in the flesh in those situations. This scenario, however, brought to light that the next step for her is to crucify those memories that she is speaking so that next time, she doesn't even think about how the "old her" would have reacted.
That old nature is dead and gone.
No sense in digging up the dead!
What a great lesson! I'm going to be mindful of my thoughts and my words... especially if I sense the old nature rearing it ugly head. My thoughts become words... and my words become my actions. If what I'm doing is not pleasing to God, it needs to be put to death on the cross. If the words that spoke that action into existence are still being spoken... if they are still coming off my tongue, then I need to nail them to the cross as well. And if the thought still exists? "God, I give you that, as well! Take it from me! Cleanse my mind!"
Death to my flesh!
Gail
