Many of us live compartmentalized lives. We have our work self, our family self, our alone self, our church self, our outgoing self, our introspective self, etc. We don’t bring work home. We don’t bring personal problems to the office. We don’t discuss our walk with Christ at work. We don’t share the details about our lives but instead wear a mask that everything is as we try to make it appear on fakebook.
But the Holy Spirit does not seek a closet in our heart. God wants and deserves our whole heart.
As we get deeper into the word and walk with Christ every day, we begin to tear down walls. We live our faith out in every part of our lives. It is the connection that makes us a whole person at work, school and home.
But, for many of us, the last and most difficult part of our heart to give up, to “circumcise” is our pride. We feel like we need to do something to earn God’s love and forgiveness. We believe that we need to be seen as good. We hold on to my strength, my will, my fortitude, my intelligence, my works because we want them to reflect well upon ourselves.
But, this part of our heart does not work with the rest of the rebuilding of our heart that needs to take place. Faith is not paint that is slapped on the outside. Faith is concrete of a foundation that builds to holiness. Our refusal to circumcise our pride is not cosmetic, it is a weakness in the foundation and a limit to the new heart that God promises in Ezekial 36.
Paul teaches us that pride/boasting is not something to be “covered up,” or “worked on”, it is a part of our heart to completely cut off as part of our new covenant relationship with the Lord.
My Answers:
3.
Bumper stickers and decals, making sure they are seen going to church. Using “christianeze”. Acting superior.
It does not bring others to Christ. It does not add value. It robs God of the credit He deserves when we take it ourselves.
4.
Works, better than the majority, through supplication and sacrifice, through family legacy, through faith in Jesus Christ. Only the last has merit.
5.
Uncircumcised heart. Pushes H/S out to make room for pride.
Daily intake of the word of God. Meditation. Prayer for self and others. Doing work to teach and love without self-glory.
The Notes are Good 