{"id":926,"date":"2009-09-23T09:43:42","date_gmt":"2009-09-23T13:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeasprayer.wordpress.com\/?p=926"},"modified":"2009-09-23T09:43:42","modified_gmt":"2009-09-23T13:43:42","slug":"reader-response-doing-what-you-dont-want-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/reader-response-doing-what-you-dont-want-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"(reader response) Doing what you don't want to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WomenPrayingCouch\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here is a response from Veronica:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m glad to come to your site, and start thinking more seriously about my own spiritual growth. I want to keep it in the front of my mind. Well, I guess you could say, I want to “make the main thing the Main Thing.” Wasn’t that a catch phrase once? \u00a0I get together with a friend to pray, and keep accountable spiritually. Last week we started talking about having trouble with doing the things we are trying so hard not to do. Really, it’s like how Paul says it in Romans-<\/em><\/p>\n

Romans 7:19 “I want to do what is good, but I don\u2019t. I don\u2019t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.”<\/p>\n

For me, it’s pride. As I start to work on it, I basically get puffed up as I feel I have a handle on it. I catch myself in false modesty with others too. So, really it’s a step backwards. I’m doing what I don’t want to do.<\/em><\/p>\n

For my friend, she says she struggles with keeping on a good face for show, or pretense. She feels like a fake. She says the more she tries to not put up a front, the more she feels that is exactly what is happening. She is even more conscious of herself, and in the end is more phony. Maybe it has to do with self\u00a0absorption. Do other people feel this way?\u00a0Do you have any suggestions?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks for allowing me to post this Veronica. I can’t say with 100% certainty, but I think what you reveal is quite a common situation. And perhaps you’re right. We might be worse off as we focus on our problem (as you say, self-absorption) rather than pour our adoration into God, follow him, and really turn to him and trust him to make us more like him. Doing what we don’t want to do proves our\u00a0desperate\u00a0need for total dependency on God. The more we struggle to do better, the more we’ll find we come up short. I believe\u00a0relinquishing our control of our own\u00a0sanctification\u00a0process (the development of our godly character)\u00a0is something that is necessary to have freedom, enjoy God’s love, and progress toward the likeness of our Redeemer. It isn’t something we can ever manage, or do well our selves. For me, it is a continual surrendering\/yielding process where I humble my will, and heart to God, and give God the timetable for my character restoration, as I recommit to\u00a0participate\u00a0fully in his process. (It has to be continual, because I don’t do well for very long!)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Anybody else have suggestions for Veronica?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(reader response) What to do about “Doing what you don’t want to do”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[236,619,13,14,17,953,1129,1211,1357,1472,1671,1729,2148,2534,60,2695,2778,2805,2830,2910,2953,3011,3192,74,6539,3317,3430,91,3788],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spirituality","tag-apostle-paul","tag-character","tag-christianity","tag-christians","tag-community","tag-dependency","tag-enjoying-god","tag-fake","tag-freedom","tag-god","tag-holy-spirit","tag-humility","tag-masks","tag-personal-growth","tag-prayer","tag-pride","tag-reader-response","tag-redeemer","tag-rejuvenation","tag-romans","tag-sanctification","tag-self-absorption","tag-spiritual-discipline","tag-spiritual-growth","tag-spirituality","tag-surrender","tag-thoughts-on-god","tag-worship","tag-yielding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}