CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 858

“Don’t Feed the Dog”

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry…anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices… (Colossians 3:5-9)

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A story is told about a rancher that had two dogs, a white one and a black one that took to fighting. His neighbor asked the rancher, ‘Which dog will win?’ to which he answered, ‘The one I feed the most.’

When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our old nature, the tendency and desire we had to live in sin, needed to be put to death. We were to put on our new nature made in the likeness of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, many of us who profess to be born-again Christians have kept the old nature on life support systems. We have been feeding both natures and they remain in constant battle with each other.

We may be able to fool our Sunday church crowd about the dark side that we secretly nurture, but God is not fooled. Our worship is a vain offering when our hearts are far from Him. (Isaiah 29:13)

Bring no more vain offerings…I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. (Isaiah 1:13)

It is indeed a narrow road to walk in this life – to be in the world but not of it. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. (Psalm 119:9) We guard our way by seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness with our whole heart, not a divided one. Our hearts are divided when we feed both dogs of our nature. If we do not feed our sinful nature and feed our spiritual nature with the Word of God we will win the battle and overcome our old nature.

We feed our sinful nature by what we choose as uncensored entertainment. We feed our old nature when we choose to participate in lies, slander, obscene and coarse talk at work, school or another social setting – all in order to ‘fit in’.

We cannot walk the narrow path of Jesus Christ in our own strength. We need the strength of God’s Holy Spirit to live the pure and holy life that God desires for us.

May you make the commitment to follow Christ and stop feeding the dog from your old nature. May you obey the Holy Spirit’s ‘gut feel’ check when you begin to wander off the path of righteousness.