When Is a Thought You?

3/15/2002

When is a thought you? You can say, “I’m being tempted to be lazy,” for example, “and I renounce that. That’s not me. I’m not lazy. Satan be gone.” You can have that attitude. But when do you say, “I am lazy. That is me.”

If you’re a follower of Jesus, I don’t know that you ever need to say that, because I think that’s demeaning the work of the cross. What you can say is if you choose to give in to that sin, “I gave in to the sin of laziness. I’ve offended You, I’ve hurt You, I’ve disappointed You, I’ve crucified You afresh and I take full responsibility for it.” But I’m not taking full responsibility for being tempted. I’m taking full responsibility when I give in to the temptation, but not simply because I am tempted. Those are just radically different things.

Now we’re tempted, it says we’re drug away and enticed in our temptation--God didn’t tempt us--but we’re drug away and enticed when our own lusts are appealed to. So satan has certain targets in each of us, certain things that are more appealing than others. So some people are not tempted by greed, others are. Some are not tempted to lust after material goods, electronics or clothing. Some people think computers are stupid, others can’t hardly tear themselves away from the latest techie journal or computer magazine. They quiver when they see the latest computer magazine, Apple or whatever in the mailbox. It just drives them nuts and they have to deal with that. Others think, “This is junkmail,” and they throw it away.

We’re drug away and enticed when by our own lusts satan is able to find some sort of target in us. Where Jesus said, “The prince of this world has come, but he has nothing in Me,” He was basically saying, “I don’t have any place within Me that I’m willing to be enticed; I’m not willing to be drug away. I’m not willing to yield any part of My affections to anything. He can’t have any part of Me.”

So, if He lives in us, then “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” with “the old is passed away; behold, ALL things are new,” not half of the things, but all things are new, the nature of the new creation is that purely and simply, “I am not my own. I am bought for a price.” That’s not just a statement of willpower. That’s not something I reason myself into. That’s a legal fact and a spiritual reality that I belong to Him now.

Now because I have certain remnants of my flesh remaining, I have certain target areas that are redeemed but still weak. So I’m not lazy because Jesus isn’t lazy. But, I have a target of laziness or a target of food or a target of electronics or something that’s a carryover from the past life that makes us as a bulls-eye in certain areas of my life that others may or may not share. So when I give in to those particular sins, I take full responsibility for having sinned in those areas. But I’m not going to say I’m lazy. I’m going to say I yielded to a sin that so easily besets me. This one is definitely a bulls-eye on my back for the enemy. I have not yet found the right way to deal with this thing in a consistent fashion, and it’s tripped me up numerous times, and satan knows that so he targets me in that area. I’ve often yielded to it, and I take full responsibility for having yielded to it because I know I was given a way out, and I didn’t see it, and I didn’t take it. So I take full responsibility.

But to say I’m lazy seems to be a Covenant problem to me. If I’m a new creation--the old has passed away, all things are new, and Jesus lives inside of me--for me to say that I’m salt water and fresh water at the same time, to say that Jesus lives inside of me but I’m lazy, just seems like I’m insulting Jesus somehow in the process, and I’m not willing to do that. I know Jesus never yields to sin, and if I do, that’s my fault, not God’s, and certainly not satan’s fault--he didn’t make me do anything. But on the other hand, I absolutely do not have to sin in any way, shape, or form. It’s not required of me that I sin.

Jesus who lives inside of me has never ever made me sin, or even allowed me to sin. He’s simply given me the option of choosing Him or choosing the enemy--choosing my own flesh. So I’m not lazy and I’m not jealous and I’m not lustful and I’m not a glutton and I’m not prideful, but I am tempted in a, b, c, or d at certain times, and more likely to be tempted in a and b than I am c and d, and I’m always given a way out, and if I don’t take it, I’m fully responsible. But that’s still different than saying I am those things.