What are the things that arouse the strongest emotions in you? Perhaps it is a rude motorist who cuts you off in traffic. Perhaps it is the anger you feel when you are wrongly accused. Perhaps it is frustration that results from not having enough money to meet perceived needs. When do emotions turn into sin?

Whenever our peace is upset over events and circumstances in life, we have moved past emotions into sin. Sin says that the circumstances of life now dictate anxiety, worry, fear, or anger. Consider that attributes of a dead man. He does not get angry when slandered. He does not worry about the future. He does not fear what can be done to him. Why? Because he is dead. Nothing can harm a dead man.

Christ said we are to live as if we are dead: dead to the temptation of responding to stimuli in our life that are designed to stir up the sinful nature that resides ine ach of us. We do not have to respond to that nature; we can consider it dead. Christ said He is enough. When He is our all in all, nothing can move us. If we are moved, then Christ is not our all in all.

Today's Prayer:

For every problem, every anxiety, every temptation, every sin in my life, there is a deliverer--Jesus Christ! Thank You, God, for Your sacrifice, Your love, Your way to reach down and pull me up. Please forgive me and help me to stand sure-footed and steady on the Rock of my salvation and to not slip and fall into the mire of the world. Please, be in control of my life.... and I know everything will be all right. In Jesus' name, Amen.

© July 17, 2005 by Os Hillman.

Visit Os Hillman's website,TGIF (Today God Is First).