Many years ago, I heard a dear friend use an expression I have remembered and shared on numerous occasions. “What’s down in the well, comes up in the bucket.” She was referring to what’s deep inside us eventually comes out in our words and actions.
Very early in my ministry I recall a snippet of a sermon our pastor at the time delivered to a group of senior adults in a local nursing home. He had a knack for speaking directly to a point and challenging this age group at their level and in the circumstances in which they lived. I recall him sharing, “Some people think that as you age you get sweeter. Well, I am here to tell you that is not so. If you were a sweet and kind young person, you most likely are a sweet and kind old person. But if you were a mean, ornery young person, you are probably a mean, ornery old person.”
The older I get the more I realize that in many cases physicians treat symptoms, rather than curing illnesses. We have high blood pressure; we take a pill to lower it. We suffer with joint pain; we take an anti-inflammatory to help with the pain. In both cases the doctor prescribes a treatment to help alleviate our pain, but neither treatment addresses the core issue of what is causing these symptoms and corrects that.
Jesus came not just to change behavior or symptoms, but to transform our hearts; to make us into new creatures through the conversion of our spirits. This requires a giving over of ourselves totally to Him. C. S. Lewis on page 196 of his book “Mere Christianity” says it this way. “Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good….Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead.”
Dr. David Jeremiah in his study Bible says it this way. “Jesus plus or minus anything does not equal faith; it is a formula. Formulas do not free anyone. Instead, they compel us to create wearying lists of do’s and don’ts that confine us, rules that restrict us, and ultimately a false gospel that steals the joy of a relationship with the Lover of our souls. Only faith in Christ alone leads to freedom. And that freedom produces life-giving spiritual fruit in our lives by which we can bless others.”
As we give over more and more of ourselves to God’s control, through the power of the Holy Spirit, there is a supernatural working within us that occurs. This working is a daily process, conforming us into His image, the result of which is a life of self-control.
Galatians 5:22-25 describes the characteristics of this transformational living. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Because what’s down in the well, comes up in the bucket!
Pastor Keith