the root of the carnal nature is ALL ABOUT ME!!! WHAT ABOUT WHAT I WANT??? DONT I HAVE A SAY IN ANY OF THIS???? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMME like a never ending litany. this is the weapon that satan most often uses to enslave and entrap us with traps he sets for us. and its very self deceptive. when we allow others to penetrate that shield of faith and push our buttons we immediately rise to the defense or even offense and our carnal nature will always tell us that were in control were getting one up on our opponents YOURE NOT TELLING ME WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT DO!!!!!!! a common lie satan will tell us is that somehow ..as insane and twisted the thinking behind this is......two wrong equal a right, forgetting that what OTHERS are doing isnt the issue. the issue isnt what others are and arent doing....WHAT DOES GOD HAVE TO SAY ABOUT IT??? WHAT WOULD JESUS DO IN THIS SITUATIION????!!!!!!! pastor gary hit on a crucial truth two weeks ago when he defined humility...it isnt being a doormat.....its holding off on the self-proclaimed right to do what we want to do and acting on it because there is a higher agenda at stake. humility is not only remaining teacheable but its also picking your battles. there is a time to yield and a time to draw the line. if its just all about proving im right and exercising the right to do what I
want then it means its time to let it go. however when it directly goes against what GOD says then its time to draw the line but there is a way of doing it. i was getting so caught up in my right to do what i wanted that i was forgetting to live by what His Words said. it was all about IM IN CONTROL YOURE NOT GOING TO CONTROL ME!!!! i didnt see that in my vain efforts to exercise control over my life that all i was doing in the eyes of God AND others was sabotaging myself. i was looking at WHAT ARE THEY DOING and not seeing GOD ISNT PLEASED WITH THIS. a doubleminded man is unstable in all his ways......by behaving one way in the presence of my fellowbelievers and my coworkers and then acting dramatically different on nighst i was out in an effort to defy those who told me i couldnt do what i wanted
only succeeded in painting a picture of me as unstable and someone not to be trusted. that duplicity of character scares people and when they see you on facebook or wherever posting all things about God and then when youre around them behaving totally the opposite theyre going to look at you as kind of nuts. pastor gary nailed it when he said whatever we put over God we WILL become enslaved by. alot of things we become enslaved by often happens because we leave a side door open to it thru bitterness and unforgiveness much of my unforgiveness was due to the fact that i saw in some of the people closest to me that their first priority was being out for themselves and as much as they may have loved me they clearly loved themselves more and they made decisions concerning me because they were looking out for and protecting themselves. well there are several parts to this. the first and this plays a crucial element in forgiving others......one is looking at MY PART IN IT- i am ALWAYS the lowest common denominator in everything that happens in my life. people tend not to talk about you unless you give them reason to talk about you and what they saw was someone clearly going back to their old ways. they also tend not to protect themselves from you when they dont see you as someone they need to protect themselves from. i was only looking at life thru the eyes of my own carnal nature and seeing those whom i couldnt trust because they didnt have my best interests in mind
and failing to see that they were doing what they were doing because they didnt trust me either.
the second was seeing that in taking my eyes off of GOD and fixating on what I wanted what was and what was not fair to me and seeing everything from a carnal perspective was i lost sight of the big picture. i strained at a gnat and swalllowed and almost choked on the camel.
HUMILITY ISNT LETTING OTHERS WALK ALL OVER YOU. ITS LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE AND SAVES ITS ENERGY FOR THE PRIMARY THINGS. the carnal nature focuses on defending things that God isnt happy with and forgets what His will for our lives is.