DRAWING THE LINE (MATTHEW 5:37-BUT LET YOUR ‘YES’ BE A ‘YES’ AND YOUR ‘NO’ BE ‘NO’. WHATEVER IS MORE THAN THIS IS OF THE EVIL ONE.)

I welcome you all again as we share God’s Word. My message this time concerns drawing a line in your walk with Christ. I would begin by saying that the greatest challenge in anything is that which you have not started. Once you kick off, it becomes easy to master the walk. I haven’t mastered it for long but for the short time I can confidently say that it’s possible in the Lord. We all have different weaknesses in our human nature. Some of the weaknesses have been intentionally placed by God to remind us that we are human and make us foolish in boasting as recorded in 2^nd Corinthians 12:11(“I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for I am in no way inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing”).Paul says that though he was in no way inferior to the very best apostles ,he felt like nothing and had become foolish in boasting.

What God does in our human weaknesses is that He gives us the Grace to overcome the weakness. Verse 9 of 2^nd Corinthians says (He has said to me,” My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me. One thing that I have come to understand about God is that He is not in our perfection, He made us and He knows all our weaknesses. All that God does is giving us the Grace to overcome in the weakness. The very first step that you need in drawing a line in serving God is purpose it from your heart. The heart is the source of everything. God dwells in divine revelation and He knows our intentions even before we do them. In Jeremiah 17:10(“I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings”).When you decide  to stop a habit that does not bring praise to God, He kicks in with His Grace in that area such that it no longer becomes any of your desire to do what you did before.

The Grace of God helps us in killing our evil desires and we no longer take any pleasure in it. I have testimonies of the many thing that God has killed my desires in and one of them that I can share is my desire for secular music. I was addicted and over and over again I would fall over the same trap, but on this day, I can testify that He has completely killed my desires in that area and I give Him all the praise and honour. Roman 8:13,Paul writes and says(“For if I live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live”).This seems to me as more of a condition than it is a statement, that the only way to live in the Spirit is to kill your flesh. This has to be a daily process because everyday comes with its temptation. Earlier on I had discussed on training to be Godly and killing your flesh should not be left out in the training to be Godly.

Let me paraphrase the writing in the book of (Matthew 5:37) which is my heading to this topic. Your ‘Yes’ has to be a ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ has to be a ‘No’ and whatever is more than this is of the evil one. In other words, do not compromise your salvation. God has not given us many options to choose from, it just has to be a yes or a no. I thing that God really hates is a double-minded person, James 1:8(“He is a double-minded man ,unstable in all his ways”)Revelation3:16(“So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth”).Making up your mind on the lines to draw in your salvation is not optional. God hates the double-minded. One of the things I did when I decided to draw my lines was posting a message on my WhatsApp status in the book of Galatians 6:17(“From now on, let no one cause me any trouble, for I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus branded on my body”).It did bring to a stand stop most of my conversations but I felt I had to bring order to my chats. Do not let anyone be a stumbling block to your walk with Christ Jesus.

I pray that God will give us the Grace to draw the line we need that we may serve Him without compromise to the salvation that he has given us. Shalom.