1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

I have been thinking. My thoughts are not always Godly and God knows that.

As I opened up my bible study app, this is the verse of the day. Interestingly it addresses in part some of my thoughts. Not all of them, but it gives enough clarity to separate some aspects of my thinking that should be avoided.

Our DNA make up is so closely related to other species that they have up to 98.5% of our DNA.

What is the 1.5% DNA that makes us different? No one ever tells us. They focus on the primates that are animals and look to compare them to us in every way they possibly can.

There is one primate in captivity that has the verbal comprehension of a three year old. He is remarkable in his responses to his trainer. It is obvious that he has personality, likes and ways to express joy. What he is not is free. He has never experienced freedom and has never had to deal with the same choices as other members of his species. He was not raised by apes in their natural environment.

We have a cat that only cares about getting its favorite treat. She will do anything to let us know what she wants. She can be affectionate, cuddles, rubs up against us, makes every emotional connection you would expect of a pet, but what she wants more than affection is those treats.

That is a human trait, a natural human trait. The cat isn’t human, but mankind is in every way so similar in behavior that we can see that the natural person is like any other animal. We will manipulate whoever we have to to get what we want.

When we come to Christ He becomes our Lord and we answer to Him. He loves us perfectly but does not treat us like a trained animal, soliciting what He wants from us by offering treats, inticements, or rewards. We are still human and human traits still exist. What we have now that we did not have before is the knowledge of who He is and what matters to Him.

Unlike that trained ape, we are free to choose.

We are free to choose to love our Lord and look to His interests or our own. What separates us from the natural person is the abiding presence of His love in our hearts. To know the love of God is what allows us to make the right choice for the right reason.

We are free to choose.

Psalm 38:5 My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness,

One of the side effects of anxiety is much like the stink here in Psalm 38:5, it is not that anxiety itself is a sin, but the effects of anxiety can be identified, like the stink of a self-inflicted wound.

I recognized one effect that told me that my anxiety needed to be addressed. It was selfishness.

Selfishness makes it difficult to hear the Lord clearly. Not impossible, just more difficult.

With me it manifested in a need to be right and to be understood. It wasn’t enough to be right, I sought affirmation. Doubt crept in when I didn’t get it. Doubt is a cancer to faith.

Thank God someone loved me enough to smell the stink and ask “What is that?”

We all need help and who better than someone who knows you best. Good accountability partners can tell when we are “not being ourselves”. They question, prod and pry until light shines upon the problem.

I have said it before and it bears repeating, we all need accountability partners. Not just someone to talk to but one who has gained your trust to the point you can share the worst parts of yourself without feeling judged. 

When I say my symptom was selfishness, I owned it and that is my confession. That does not mean that when others are struggling that selfishness is their symptom. Nor does it mean that selfishness means one has anxiety. Other wounds can produce other symptoms.

I would love to believe that I could work out all my problems on my own with the help of the Holy Spirit but when we are having trouble hearing, it is not His fault. That is a sign of something being wrong. That is why His Word says “be subject one to another”.

Who do you trust?