12.9.10

Proverbs 29:18 When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.  But whoever obeys the law is joyful.

My Thoughts

Sin can be so enticing even when we know better, the devil set sin up to look like so much fun.  Gossip, to be the person "in the know" the person people are listening to at the moment.... the drunk, being the "life of the party," .... The over spender being the "big spender" and "having it all" and the list goes on and one... we feel the Holy Spirit pulling us one way... and the devil enticing us with false promises....lets look at each of these thing further...

Gossip... sure people listen for the moment...they they walk away...and they gossip about you gossiping... you run into the person you gossiped about and you feel great guilt, you heart is heavy... but if you had listend to the Holy Spirit no one would have been talking behind your back about you gossiping...and if they found something else to say you could hold you head up high because you knew it was not true..and then when your ran into the person that you "didn't" gossip about you could be happy to see them!!... filled with joy and not fear. 

 The drunk... for a few minutes you were the life of the party and at first when you were still a bit in control people were laughing with you...but at some time in the night people where laughing at you, talking about you...and the next day you body pays for what you have done... you fight with your spouce about your actions because you embarrassed them... you ran into somebody from the night before and you wonder if you did something to offend them... you worry... if you had listened to the Holy Spirit you would have had a good time without getting drunk..you may not have been the "life of the party" but you weren't the death of the party either... you can face people the next day.. your spouce can be proud of how you acted... your body can feel good and you can enjoy your week... with justfying anything from the weekend over and over in your head... there is great joy in not having to live with regret...

The over spender.. we have all done this... think we wanted something... felt really good when we paid for it...just to get it home and have that huge let down feeling... we think we impress people by  bragging about what we have...what we just bought when the truth is those people that love us are going to love us anyway...when we over spend the devil robs us of so much by making us notice that moment of purchace and truning it into something bigger than what it is... in return people hide things from their spouce, hate the mail man because he brings in the bills... can't sleep and work more than they want to and in some cases end up loosing all that we worked so hard to have.... all because of those fleeting moments of the high they get from buying something that often times they didn't really even want... When we listen to the Holy Spirit in this matter we have peace when we can pay our bills... we have better relationships with our spouces because we have not been caught in a lie, our friends don't have to compete with us because we don't compete with them.... and one day we get to feel great joy when we pay off our house early... and on the peace and joy that comes every month for the rest of forever when we do that!! 

All sin has a moment of that high that seems nice in the beginning... or we wouldn't do them.. but listening to the Holy Spirit has rewards that far out weight the "high" of sin... sometimes we have to wait for the reward...but we always have peace in the process... we have peace of mind in the process... we have a light heart in the process, we can face people and be proud to see them in the process... joy comes in those tiny moment in our day when our soul is free enough that we can stop and smell the rose.