A hole filled cross

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. (Galatians 5:24-25)

Hey, does your cross have a bunch of holes where the nails have been driven time and time again? I know I have a seen God drive a nail home when he convicts me of something he wants to change in my life, then after a while, there I am with the hammer trying to remove that nail! Nail and hammer in hand, I go about doing the very thing God asked me to allow him to nail to the cross! It is likely we all struggle with that from time to time, all because we want to control the course of our lives just a bit too much. The 'control thing' is really a combo of our pride and our lusts getting the best of us. We want what God says we should not have, then we struggle with the desire to possess it, before long giving into that desire instead of leaving that thing nailed to the cross where he helped us to secure it in the first place. God's greatest hope is that we give him the hammer and allow it to remain there!

Passions and desires are not a bad thing unless they are moving us away from Christ's best for our lives. When God convicts, our response is usually repentance. That conviction leads to God taking up the hammer and driving the nail home - we experience a change in our actions because that sin was nailed to the cross. Whenever we take our eyes off Jesus, we find our desires soon gravitate once again toward what we were asked to leave on that cross. Taking up the hammer and trying to remove that nail will only leave holes in the cross and 'holes' in our heart! We need to leave it there - like it or not. The struggle to do what God says we shouldn't do is real, but the more we lean into Christ, the less likely we will be to feel the pull away from the cross. 

We have frequently explored the need to keep the right focus, but it cannot be said enough. What we focus upon, we lean upon. When the cross is what we lean upon, we will find there is less likelihood of us trying to take back what God asked us to leave there. The cross isn't a 'temporary holding place' for our sins - it is the place where they find permanent death. In order for death to occur, they have to stay on the cross! If you find you have your hammer at the ready almost immediately after God asks for you to relinquish control of some sin in your life, nailing it to the cross, then it is time to also give him the hammer. We may not want to immediately relinquish the hammer, but the more we lean against that cross, the quicker the death to that sin will actually be. Just sayin!