When we, like the Apostle Paul, in Romans 7:13-25, cannot “do the things we want to do”, but “do the things we do not want to do”, for the enslaving sin within us, uses our “reasoning” against us, but through our Lord Jesus Christ, whose authority and power (Philippians 4:13), along with our “willingness to change”, we can “do the things we want or know we should do”, for the human soul has three parts: Emotion, mind, and will, thus, a parable may help.
Suppose we have never liked carrots or never will; thus, our “will” is firmly set to never like carrots; however, in our senior college class is an extremely gorgeous, sweet lady we desire knowing on a personal basis, so one day in line at the college cafeteria, we realize she is in front of us, and she asks for an extra helping of carrots, saying “she really likes carrots”; therefore, our “emotions and will” rapidly gave “a complete new meaning” to our “reason” for never liking carrots; so now the two of us eat and enjoy the carrots she, our wife, cooks.
Although this was only a parable; yet, with Christ Jesus’ authority, power, and our emotions, mind, and will, everything about the “meaning for our reasoning” will change when we “choose to apply the “truth of God’s word”, for Jesus, in Mark 9:23 says, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes”, so believe and keep telling or prophesy to ourselves it is done (Mark 11:24).
Our “reasoning and meaning” are only “personal, mental desires or intentions”; therefore, we can “reprogram or change our mental meaning for our reasoning at any time”, because God’s word is the only “infallible, unchanging truth” there is, for Psalm 119:89 confirms, “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven”; therefore, God’s word must also be forever settled in us.
When I was a boy, we constantly heard this statement from older people, who not only spoke it, but also lived it: “My word is my bond”, and only a handshake was sufficient to self-legalize that “covenant” (agreement, pledge, promise, vow), which is what God made an everlasting covenant with Abram (high father), in Genesis 15, but whose name God, in Genesis 17:1-9, changed to Abraham (father of multitudes or father of all Israelites), yet God expected Abraham to keep “the covenant”, the same way Abraham could expect God to keep “the covenant”, and they both did.
This “my word is my bond”, “my covenant agreement, vow”, is worthless in today’s “greed world”, where deception is “the norm” and “agreements, covenants, promises, and vows” are only as good as “the cleverest of the two involved attorneys”, for the “meaning behind the reasoning” of this present generation is not “Lord willing, I will live and do this or that” (James 4:13-18), but it is “Do whatever it takes to succeed in life, regardless of who is financially destroyed or hurt, for self-comfort has top priority”; whereas, “God’s way is to be comforted in uncomfortable honesty”, as we learn from the “covenant/agreement” Jephthah made with God in exchange for God giving him a battlefield win, in Judges 11, but this “spur-of-the-moment, thoughtless covenant/agreement” between God and him cost the life of his only daughter; therefore, be very careful what we commit, promise, vow, or agree to do or not do, for God expects us to keep our word the same as we expect God to keep His word.
A “liar” is a “liar” even if we “lie” to ourself (Revelation 21:8), by “promising” something, but not following through with it, as is normal in our “self-promised-lies”; thus, ask God to give us His “Holy Spirit of Truth” (John 16:5-15) as our “Motivation” to be honest to God, others, and ourselves, so we keep all our covenants, agreements, promises, and vows, so only the cost is to our comfort, but in the Holy Spirit, complete honesty is comfort in Christ Jesus, our Peace.
Jim, Kim, and Tim Nabors
