Honoring Christ In Our BodiesSample

Replace

We pray and allow God to Replace our old ways with truth and wisdom …

I once had a friend tell me that you can “tell a lot about a person by what they laugh at.” This sentiment is true for what grabs all our inward affections through our outward senses. Inwardly our heart (used over 840 times in Scripture) chooses what we honor based on the desires we carry within. The heart controls us and motivates us. Therefore, above all, we need to guard our hearts. Outwardly, our heart brings before our senses sights, smells, sounds, touch, and/or tastes. All of these choices are worship decisions. 

We must adopt a motto toward all things when learning how to guard our heart: reject, receive, and redeem. There are many things that are down right good in this world, and should be enjoyed and received, but there are many things that have been so perverted that they should be rejected and removed altogether. However, most things fall into the redeemcategory; in that we are to use wisdom in what we bring before our senses for enjoyment.

Consider this for a moment: when Proverbs implores parents to train a child in the way they should go, the Hebrew word Paideia is used for the work of training. Paideia literally refers to training a child’s palate to have a taste for the finer things in all of life. We must do the same in our lives as a whole. We must parent our palates to have an appetite for the best art, the best creativity, the most helpful resources and products, and for the savory-ness of the gospel in our craft.

We must reject the things causing us to stumble (some of us more things than others) because of our weakness and inability to handle it at the moment. But, our ultimate goal must be to receive and replace the things we’ve learned to abuse with usefulness and purpose. We must do this within the redeemed proper use and limits. Maybe this means finding altogether different things that will serve our betterment.