"Desensitized"

"I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me."  Psalm 101:3

The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy.  One strategy that he uses in order to do that is to try to desensitize us to sin.  I can see him doing that through media and entertainment.  When I was a little girl, on television you never saw a husband-and-wife sleep in the same bed, they slept in separate beds.  Then television began to show the married couple in bed together.  Then they began to show unmarried individuals in bed together.  Now, the shows are full of adultery.  It's the same with the language on television.  You never heard a curse word, or a bleep.  Then Rhet Butler said his famous line to Scarlett at the end of the movie with a curse word in it.  Everyone "gasped"... but then began to repeat it.  From there the profanity started increasing in the movies and on television.  Now you can't find a descent show that you can watch without hearing profanity or seeing adultery.  The same thing is happening with homosexuality.  It came "out of the closet" and presented itself on television in sitcoms.  It's even in commercials.

The point I am trying to make this morning is that the enemy has desensitized us into accepting the things we once would not.  He has been repeatedly putting it before our eyes, subtly at first, until we have stopped "gasping" at it or being "appalled" by it.  If he can keep "bombarding" us with it, pretty soon it becomes "common", "ordinary" and "normal".

News flash-- if God says it is wrong, if He says it is sin, if He says it is unacceptable, if He says it is damnable, if He says it is an abomination, if He says it is evil then it should never be "normal" for us.  We should never be accepting of it. 

Do not set any evil thing before your eyes.  The more you are surrounded by something, the more you watch it, listen to it, and place yourself in its company, the less and less it will bother you if it is something wrong.  This happens to a lot of teenagers.  They may not partake of some of the things their friends are doing, but if they hang around it long enough, they will be begin to do the same thing because it has become common place.  Sin should never be commonplace in our lives. 

How to we "combat" this desensitization?  By turning off the television, movies and music that are propagating these things.  Removing yourself from its presence if possible.  Keep your mind renewed in God's word by meditating on it and quoting it continually to yourself.  Love what God loves and hate what God hates. 

We were, and are, being spoon-fed a little compromise/sin at a time.  What happens overtime is that you begin to "acquire" a taste for it and then become accepting of it.  But there is an end result.  If you take a little poison, just a drop at a time, for a period of time, it will kill you-- you will die.  Same thing.  Your conscience will be seared, and your heart will become hard hearted.

Have a great day.  The devil wants to desensitize you to sin so that you will become accepting of it.   

For further reading:
John 10:10
Psalm 119:11
Romans 12:2
2 Peter 2:7,8

"How To Pray?"

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."  Romans 8:26

Have you ever not known what to pray, or how to pray, about a particular situation?  Before His crucifixion Jesus was there with the disciples.  Any question they had, anything they needed to know, they just asked Him.  He was there and gave them the answer, the insight, the revelation, the guidance, and the understanding to their questions.  But Jesus wasn't always going to be there.  He knew He was getting ready to be offered up in death for the sins of the world.  So He told His disciples that when He was gone He would send them another Comforter in His place.  This Comforter- the Holy Spirit- would be with them and in them teaching them all things.

Our verse sums up one of the works the Holy Spirit does in our lives-- helps us to pray as we should.  Not only do we not know what to pray or how to pray but also our own will, thoughts, opinions, ideas and assumptions get in the way of our prayers and instead of praying according to the Father's will we wind up praying our own will.

When you go to your place of prayer each day, when you knee before God to make your request, ask the Holy Spirit to come into your prayer time.  Ask Him to come along beside you and help you pray.  When you do, your prayers will get further and you will see more answers.  The reason being is that the Holy Spirit always knows what the will of the Father is in any and every situation and will not pray otherwise or against that will.  "And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." (verse 27)

Have a great day.  If you are unsure how to pray and what to pray, invite the Holy Spirit into your prayer time and ask Him to help you.

For further reading:
John 14:16,17