Oh how the rebellious spirit has taken over today! It's definitely not something I am proud of and as I get older I become keen to it a lot quicker than I used to. I can identify it pretty quickly in my day now as opposed to living out the entire day without even giving it a second thought. The battle now is that I recognize it but struggle with choosing to do something about it. I am sure this holds true for lots of people. I've come to realize that when a lot of deadlines are put on me at once, the rebellion takes over and I want to say forget it all. Eeeeek! Looking back now, I realize this was a HUGE problem for me in college. I wasn't aware of it at the time but I'm certain now that's what was going on. The biggest times I notice it now are when things need to be done around the house or for sure when work deadlines are added on top of the house deadlines. I'm living in that right now. When the rebellious spirit reigns, I eat whatever I want, I find every excuse not to do what needs to get done, I will fill my time with useless activities, I would love to just get in the car and drive, I don't care if the salad gets chopped for tonight's dinner...I don't even care if my family gets dinner! :o)
So how do I break the ugly cycle when I see it happening? Today I decided to take a look at what the Bible says about it. Obviously I think the comparison is a little extreme but as I read through some verses I realized that what it could lead to is separation from the Lord. That's definitely not my heart and in the many times I've been eating my 10th cookie I never thought of the effect it has on my relationship with God. Please hear me when I say that eating 10 cookies DOES NOT make the Lord love me any less but what I am saying is that when I'm eating that cookie I have lost ALL self control and that is not of the spirit.
"...but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land." Psalm 68:6
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and SELF CONTROL. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23