What's Working Through You?

Friday, November 16th> Ecclesiastes 10: 1; 1 Corinthians 5: 6-8

What mistake do we make by allowing the "little" issues to remain unaddressed and only deal with those we consider "big"?  Yeast is an interesting ingredient.  It's actually a single-celled fungus that produces on its own by budding and division.  All it takes is two .5 -ounce packages of this substance, mixed in with 5 cups of bread flour, 3 cups of wheat flour, and other ingredients to make 2 to 3 loaves of delicious wheat bread.

It's amazing how quickly and thoroughly yeast works its way through the entire batch.  All it needs is the right conditions -- warm water, all the ingredients mixed together, and time to sit and grow. The yeast, which seems like such an insignificant part of the whole process when it begins, now takes over.  Its presence now becomes known as it causes the whole thing to rise, changing the composition of the ingredients and  causing them to become something other than they were before.

Need I say more?  Our lives and all the parts that make up our attitudes, beliefs and actions start with our thoughts.  These images that enter our minds can either be holy and God-given, or diabolical and conceived in the satanic realm.  Whatever we allow to be mixed in will eventually "work it's way through", ultimately changing who we are from the inside out-- just like the yeast.  All those thoughts need are the right, deeply-embedded desires that we think no-one knows about, and time to sit and grow -- just like the yeast.  The fact that we think those secret, hidden ideas will remain secret and hidden is a major sign of our immaturity and lack of knowledge of spiritual things.

If we want to truly see ourselves set free in our thought life and hearts, we must begin to treat ungodly thoughts as the deadly ingredients they really are -- capable of changing our attitudes and devotion towards the Father.  Before we know it, we go from on-fire and closely-connected to other believers to cynical and withdrawn, having negative things to say about everything that has to do with God.  Watch out indeed for the leaven that works itself through everything we are.  Deal with those thoughts as they come -- expose them for what they really are, and certainly DON't give them time to pile up inside.  Instead, allow your heart to become the right condition for growing the seeds of God's Word.  Just like that yeast, it will completely transform you, and EVERYONE will be able to tell you've been in the presence of the Living God.