Daily Diary - January 8th 2016
What's Your Struggle?
The Apple
What’s Your Struggle?
We talked about our “Choices” yesterday and we need to take it one step further. When I was first saved God began to show me the difference between His will and the will of my fleshly desires. Needless to say I had many bad habits along with spiritual wrong thinking. Some in greater measure than others! As I pressed into God’s word the Holy Spirit started to reveal and convict me of the things I needed to change.
Today’s Scripture: Genesis 3:1-3 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’”
At this point in time God had only made one command to Adam and Eve. Don’t eat of the Fruit from the Tree in the midst of the Garden. The enemy tempted them and they failed.
Daily Parable: I believe this fruit represents what I refer to as the parable of the Apple. This Apple in a spiritual sense represents our temptation. It can be many things that trip us up in life, both spiritual and physical. We all have Apples to deal with.
Our spiritual “Apples” can include: anger, fear, envy, pride, jealousy, greed and so on. The physical “Apples” can include many forms of abuse such as, physical, alcohol, drugs, or sexual addiction.
God almost always refers to physical things to bring forth a spiritual meaning. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit they had gone against God’s word and the death they brought upon themselves was both physical and spiritual. Jesus bought back our relationship with God at the cross!
Questions of the Day? What’s Your Apples? What’s your “biggest” Apple of temptation?
Are you willing to surrender the temporary gratification of your “Apples” for the eternal life that God has purchased for you spiritually? As God begins to reveal these Apples to you, you will have the choice to surrender them to God’s plan. His everlasting grace, love, joy and peace are more than sufficient and better than the temporary gratification found in sinful nature!
The reason Jesus is a “Relationship” is because we walk out our salvation with Him by our side. He reveals “US” to “ourselves” by giving “US” the ability to compare our lives to HIS. As this comparison takes place we have the opportunity to grow to become more like Him and less like our old selves. That is why He is called Lord.
Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “Lord” as someone or something having power, authority, or influence.
He is my ever present Lord and by my side to love me through my transformation into my destiny in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Jesus had saved me from my sin, but often times I was unaware of all the areas that were sin in my life until the Word and the Holy Spirit revealed them to me. I needed to walk out my salvation one Apple at a time!
Global Perspective: The world-wide-web offers an endless supply of “Apples” for all to take part in. The web is especially engulfed with an abundance of Gambling and Pornography along with basically every other form of sinful display that temps us all. One might make a comparison of the “WEB” to the “TREE” in the midst of the Garden. The Tree in the Garden is often referred to as the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”. We can conclude that the WEB is full of knowledge of both “Good and Evil”
Its fruit is the root of many temptations including people walking around in a trance staring at their phone constantly. We need to face the fact that the Internet can replace our time with God. In fact if we are not careful we will be worshiping it at a higher level than God. If Matthew 6:33 says; 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you, yet we spend 10 hours a day on the web and 10 minutes with God we probably are seeking the web first. Then we wonder why God’s plan is not working in our lives.
How many of us need to repent of the addiction to the Web? Ouch!
Final Thought: Each day we go out in the World the Apples begin to cross our path. We need the knowledge to make great choices. If our flesh leads us first we will not be able to choose properly. Only by our spirit and knowledge of God’s word can we recognize our temptations and make better decisions for our life.
Father, in Jesus Name I pray that we recognize the areas that we fall short of your Glory. Reveal us to ourselves so we can grow spiritually and obtain a path of righteousness worthy of your Glory. Amen!
Video of the Day: Break Every Chain!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmk0hRBxGxI
(Send feedback to the Daily Diary and become a part of the process.)
About the Author
Mark Ward
Mark Ward - Mark is a coach, evangelist and motivational speaker that is dedicated to spreading the gospel on multiple platforms which include being the co-founder of CoachesAid.com, Team Spirit Youth Outreach and Churches Aid while being the youth pastor at Harvest Fellowship Church. Part of Mark’s passion is to help Coaches and athletes create an environment that will prepare youth for life beyond sports. Traveling evangelism has become a main part of Mark's focus, where he is dedicated to reach out to all areas that God would provide opportunity to spread the gospel.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | Authors
Romans 8:38-39
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
