Run Like The Wind

"Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love
and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart." 2 Timothy 2:22

Yesterday's Leadership class was fantastic. We covered 12 facts that cannot fail when in a leadership position. One in particular that I wanted to highlight was practicing self-control.

Nothing gets my goat more than to see this world deliberately pinpoint our society with lustful marketing tactics. Since I was part of the world for the first 19 years of my life, I did not have my guard up when it came to fleshly temptations. Yes, I was affected by my poor choices in life and those poor choices resulted in consequences that, in some cases, had residual outcomes.
From what I can gather, thus far, in my minimal amount of Greek is that the words flee and pursue are present active imperative verbs (Wow, look at Jon using those 50 cent words!). What I believe Paul is trying to get across is that this is what you MUST do (commands). I also believe that most of us in the church have a grasp of pursuing righteousness, faith, love and peace. Where some tend to fail though is in understanding how and when to flee. In practicing self-control, some believe we need to stand face to face with temptation in hopes that our faith will persevere and we will survive the test. And if this trial does not go in God's favor, we may go through a period of remorse, followed by a reevaluation of our faith accompanied with prayer and then back to the battlefield against temptation, face to face. Is this a practice of self-control? No, this is a result of what's called desensitization. Basically, the more we purposely face the same temptation the more we come back to it. We begin rationalizing what God's word says.

What fleeing is is self-control. Fleeing a situation does not make someone a coward. Fleeing a enticing situation makes you wise and pleases God. Recognizing your weaknesses and not allowing Satan to even get close to that weakness is another area of righteousness. Yesterday we also learned in class we should only focus 5% of our time to our weaknesses. Those weaknesses may always be there but if we can focus on our strengths and fortify them through devotion to God's will, we develop a stronger defense. Don't forget, God will always provide a way out of temptation (1 Cor. 10:13) even if it means putting our track shoes on.