Mastered?

 "I have the right to do anything, you say—but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything—but I will not be mastered by anything" ! Cor. 6:12 TNIV

Yes, Paul is talking about sexual immorality and other vices but as I was thinking about this verse I had to stop and look at the areas in my life that master me. Of course the correct Christian answer is "Jesus is my only master" but if you honestly believe that without any self reflection you will find yourself very much deceived. How can I confidently say this? Because I know you all still sin. I know that your sinful nature manifests itself and you become subject to it. Besides the obvious, I also began to change my thinking about God. I find it is easy to be spiritually "stuck" on a particular biblical viewpoint, a Christian saying or mindset. It could be our canned answer for everything, it could be a quote from a famous pastor, or from a book we read. I am not saying that those are wrong, but I question whether or not we truly allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us because we have formed a "box" a "perspective" or mindset that doesn't allow Him to challenge our thinking or to reveal a larger scope of Himself.  We can get to the point that we don't learn anything new. Times in the word all look the same, prayers become repeated, our thoughts and words all sound about the same. A simple example: What characteristic about God do you focus on the most? "God is love", might be your answer. Yes, He is love but there are so many other characteristics that He equally is. (Not one attribute is more than the others by the way) What about He is full of wrath? He is Jealous? He brings Judgement? He is Just? He has a boiling point regarding sin? Just to name a few and really mess up your theological ideology. We can become "mastered" by old or stuck ways of approaching God, thinking about God, speaking, serving, etc. As if there is only one way to do those things. We get mastered or better we box a God who cannot be bound by anything. So I challenge you to open the eyes of your heart and allow the Lord to change the lens that you see life through. Ask Him to show you what you have been missing and what has been mastering you.

Enjoy the journey!