Response Ability

Human beings are complicated creatures.  The truthfulness of this statement is part of what makes life so interesting.  It is also what makes life so challenging at times.  We are created in God’s image and represent in a limited way His divine nature and character.  Yet at times, our behavior is anything but God-like.  We are comprised of a physical body, a soul (consisting of mind, will, and emotions) and our spirit.  Each is interconnected with the other 2 and impacted in a lesser or greater way when one part of our person is impacted in a negative way.  When we feel well physically, we often feel well emotionally also.  When we are ill physically or are experiencing chronic pain, it is more difficult, though not impossible, to feel well emotionally and spiritually.  When we experience severe emotional trauma, or if the trauma is prolonged, often our sleep is affected, we become anxious and we begin to feel the impact physically as well.  In general, as whole persons, we are subject to a wide variety physical, emotional and spiritual influences as we live life each day.

 

Another variable in all this is the fact that we have the ability to choose how we will respond in all the circumstances of life.  When offended we can choose to forgive or not to forgive.  When accidents happen or relationships become conflicted, we can choose how we process them or if we work at processing them at all.  Bottom line is we cannot always control what happens to us in life but we do have control over how we respond to them.  And herein lies the problem. We sometimes believe or act as if we believe that we don’t have the ability and therefore the responsibility to interact with life in a Godly way.  When this happens, we often find ourselves stuck emotionally and spiritually, suffering needlessly.

 

King Solomon wrote of this condition in Proverbs 25:28, “like a city that is broken into and without walls, is a man who has no control over his spirit.”  He is using a metaphor of his day, the fortified city, to describe what happens to us when we don’t practice dominion over our thoughts, emotions, and actions.  Just because we have historically responded in a set way over particular life circumstances, doesn’t mean we always have to respond in the same way.  We can change by first acknowledging our ability, response ability, to change as we change our beliefs and allow Jesus to heal past hurts.  It will take time and intentionality on our part but we are not destined to remain stuck for the rest of our earthly lives.

 

A significant component in living the abundant life that Jesus died to give us is recognizing we have both the opportunity, and responsibility, to practice dominion over our own spirit.  The devil would have us believe otherwise so that he can continue his destructive work of robbing, killing and destroying but we are to guard our hearts, watching over them with all diligence (Proverbs 4:23).  Are you practicing dominion over your own spirit?  It is a spiritual discipline that will bear tremendous fruit!  Solomon tells us just how significant this discipline can be in our lives when he says we prove ourselves to be greater in power than one who can take a whole city (Proverbs 16:32).  Something to think about next time you are feeling stuck in all too familiar circumstances.