Own this!

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Genesis 4:7

7

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

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"You've got to own this!"

It was the voice of a young man. It was the last thing I remember before my van crashed last February. I had been clean from my old addictions for a few years, but had fallen to temptation a few days before the crash.

I spent three years chaste. And five years without my bad habits. I was on fire for the Lord, but was still in a state of expectation and lust. I expected that the Lord would defend my efforts and reward me with a new job, more money, maybe even a decent woman. With no change in sight, despite my effort, I fell into weeks of severe depression. I was begging to die, praying for it.

I turned back to my addiction. Gave in to it. And that very day, I blacked out while driving, and crashed my van, narrowly missing the cliff face to the ocean. But moments before the crash, I heard a young man say, "You have to own this!" He was saying it in such a way that he sounded concerned.

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Genesis 4:7

7

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

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It is not enough to repent. It is not enough to be forgiven. It is not enough to suffer. We have to persevere. We have to continue to grow in the Truth. Most importantly, we have to learn to serve our master. 

This is the key. Each of us has to replace what we used to do. Just sitting around praying and suffering is not enough. We have to become new.

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Ephesians 4:24

24

and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

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Jesus served. Jesus did his Father's will. It is the Father's will that we believe in the one He sent. Jesus is our Master. He is in us, as the mind of Christ is the Holy Spirit. If we listen to what our master says, we are the action of his righteousness.

The good servant waits on his master. The good servant does not do his work, and then expect to sit and eat with him, no. The good servant attends to his master's needs, then eats later. This is the humble place of servitude. Realizing what we desire is unworthy.

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Genesis 4:7

7

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

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"You have got to own this!" 

I now realize that ownership of our desires, is two things. 

1.Out of faith denying our desires.

2.Out of love, replacing them with obedience.

Salvation is being saved from ourselves. There is no completeness in having personal expectations. Obedience is what fulfills our faith. Do you think faith is what is holy for those in eternal realms? Or is it more likely that obedience is what is holy in eternal realms.

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John 20:29

29

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

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If we do what is right we will be accepted. But having faith with no acts is dead. So we must not only out of faith deny ourselves, but out of love for our master, serve obediently.

Sin is crouching at the door. Waiting for those who believe but have expectations to be awarded for their faithfulness alone. We instead have to listen to the mind of our master. In this obedience, we put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness that is of Him.

Own this!