"A Condition Of The Heart"

A Blast From The Word
By Sandra Rhynes
“A Condition Of The Heart”
I Thessalonians 5:22
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Well now, you would think this verse seems pretty clear. Just stay away from anything you know is not right and good, stay away from sin. Abstain means--don’t do--we tell our teens to abstain, we tell them, just don’t do it, just say no! Sounds easy doesn’t it? What do we do when we live in an evil world with sin all around? The Bible says we live in this world, but not to be of this world. What does that mean? We can make sure that we don’t give evil a foothold by avoiding tempting situations and concentrating on obeying God. He MUST be in every aspect of our lives. It is wrong to think we can separate our spiritual lives from everything else. We can’t live for Jesus just one day a week. Christ must control ALL of us, not just the “religious” part, and not just part of the time. It is all or nothing. In the Book of Revelation, (Rev. 3:16) Jesus calls this condition “lukewarm.” If this is your condition, it goes on to say that He will spew you out of His mouth. You might here other “Christians” use the word “moderation”, it is just another word for “lukewarm”.
Holy Jesus, I don’t want to be a lukewarm Christian, keep me as the apple of Your eye. I want to be on fire for You. Keep me humble and away from all appearance of evil. Create within me a clean heart and a steadfast spirit. Take not Your Holy Spirit from me, I pray. In Your name I ask. Amen