Studying the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew has affected me in ways that I had not anticipated. Aside from some of the details of the chapter that are prone to easily confuse, the principles of the chapter are clear and convicting.
For instance, since studying this chapter, I find myself throughout the day often thinking about the return of Jesus.
It has been interesting to see the changes that the Holy Spirit has been working within me. When I think about Jesus returning it affects the words I use. It affects what I watch and listen to. It affects what I think about. It affects what I do.
I catch myself thinking about something I shouldn’t be thinking about and then suddenly think, “Is that what you want to be thinking about when Jesus returns?”
I can’t give myself any credit for this. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit through what we’ve been studying.
There’s a negative side as well. As much as I have felt tugged by the Spirit to live better in anticipation of Jesus’ return, I have also felt a temptation to ignore the urging of the Spirit and do what I want to do, think what I want to think, watch and listen to what I want to watch and listen to, and to say what I want to say.
That’s the old me. That’s me before Jesus saved me and before the Holy Spirit filled me. That old self does battle with the new. It’s the internal battle that Paul describes in Romans 7:15
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
But even though Paul struggled, he never stopped embracing God and resisting evil. May we do likewise. And be encouraged because 1 John 4:4 tells us that
4 …greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
Resist evil. Don’t resist the Holy Spirit. He wants to work a powerful change in you!
Much love,
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
