"Operation Rehabilitation"

Saturday, September 22nd> Hebrews  chapter 4

Once we have gotten our hearts into the place of captivity, how do we "rehabilitate" and re-educate it?  When I was a young girl, I had a cousin who would often come and stay the summers with us.  She was deathly afraid of getting injections, but was always coming down with something for which she needed medical attention. I can still see her now, having to be chased down the dirt road from our house just so she could be given something that was necessary for her to get well.  They would literally have to hold her down while she screamed at the top of her lungs just to give her that shot.  It was because of her carrying-on that  I vowed I would be brave and just stand obediently to get my shot whenever it was time for me to get one.

This whole discussion about our unruly, runaway hearts brought that childhood memory back to me.  We know in our hearts that God's Word is the best medicine for our sin-sickness.  And yet, we will not be able to get it to "rest" in God's Word and promises on its own.  It wants to follow and chase after every fleeting fancy because of the temporary gratification it brings.  So we must chase it down and capture it to ensure that it will  listen to the Words of life that God has given us. Can you see yourself chasing your heart down the dirt roads of life, calling its ungodly desires and needs into submission by casting them down?  That's the only way you'll be able to get it quiet long enough to begin reminding it of the promises of God that it's forgotten.  

In the place of captivity, where it loses its right to say what it wants, thinks and feels, you can now speak and declare God's Word and make the heart line up with that alone.  This process is life-transforming because it causes our minds to be renewed and our very lives to discover again what God's perfect will for our lives is in every season.  Without it, we fall further and further away from the mark of the high calling.  Watch for those moments when the battle between your will and God's begins.  No matter how "cute" your heart looks trying to strike out on its own path, DON'T GIVE IN.  You'll need to apply God's formula for transformation.  That's when "Operation Rehabilitation" can begin.