The Prequel

I have been trying to put into words some thoughts that have been rolling around in my head. I need to get these on 'paper' before posting the last blog entry I wrote. Yes, my prequel.

I believe that for me to correct my ways I must first confess my sins and truly be repentant. My heart must be continually repentant so that I am reminded to walk daily in the Word and with the Spirit. Because as much as I would like to "kick my habit" I cannot do it on my own.

Confession: I spend and then I spend some more. Good deals, bad deals, no deals. In the last few years I have been a spending maniac. I have a good reason for some of it. You see, we lost our home and everything in it to a fire. We had to rebuild our home and buy everything we needed to live. It was like forcing an alcoholic to drink. With what seemed like a bottomless budget I was in seventh heaven. You name it, we needed it and I bought it. With thoughts twirling threw my mind like. "It is just stuff, who needs it anyhow." "I deserve this and more because I had way more than this." "I ought to have that because what I had was way better, meant more, was priceless, etc..." Most of what I bought we needed and I could easily justify my purchase. When I look back at how much money I spent, to replace our belongings, in such a short period of time (18 months) it boggles my mind. Granted we paid insurance premiums so that if disaster struck we could replace our stuff. It still fed my sickness, my addiction and it has made it so much more evident and so much more difficult to curtail.

So there is my confession. What can I do to change? Nothing, at least nothing on my own. Will I change? Maybe, maybe not. But my only chance is to be constant in the Word of God and know that I can do nothing without Him who saved me. I know that I am forgiven not because I have changed or because of anything I have done or said. But, I am forgiven and made righteous because of the person and work of Jesus. As Paul wrote to the Romans in Chapter 8 verses 1 through 4.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.