Christ-Esteem: Where the Search for Self-Esteem Ends by Don Matzat

Author:Don Matzat [Matzat, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2016-12-09T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The Conflict

"For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature." ‐St. Paul

It had been a beautiful Sunday morning experience. The worship, the singing, the choir had been magnificent. I had preached on my favorite subject of justification, and it seemed that the words just poured out of me. As I walked home from church at noon I felt like I was walking on air. The joy and peace remained and bubbled over as an "afterglow" of the worship experience.

I greeted my wife Dianne who was busily beginning the Sunday dinner preparations.

"Wasn't that a great service?" I asked, fully expecting a confirming response. Dianne was often very sensitive to the quality of the worship service and the response of the congregation. "Wow, the worship was fantastic. Didn’t the choir..."

"I didn't get anything out of it," she angrily interrupted.

"What do you mean you didn't get anything out of it? The worship was fantastic, and you didn't get anything out of it?" I responded incredulously. "How in the world anyone can sit in that church this morning and not get anything out of it..."

"Oh, it's easy for you," she again interrupted. "You are not stuck balancing a baby on your lap, juggling the hymnal and trying to break up the arguments between the other two. I can't understand why those kids of ours can't behave themselves in church. They are always at each other. I get so mad sometimes I could scream."

My blood began to boil. I get up from the kitchen table and marched into the living room where the Sunday papers were spread out from one end to the other. The two older kids were laid out on the floor reading the comic sections....

"What's the matter with you two?" I angrily asked. "Why can't you behave in church. You got your mother all upset."

"He keeps teasing me," my older daughter explained, pointing the finger at my oldest son who usually got the blame for most of the family squabbles, and often rightly so.

"Get out of here, both of you! I am sick and tired of looking at you! Go to your rooms!" I grabbed them both by an arm and marched them into their rooms and slammed the doors. I went back in the living room and angrily began gathering the papers together.

Amazingly, within about five minutes, the joy, the peace and sense of excitement which had been flowing within me as a result of a worship experience had been replaced with anger and frustration. What a difference five minutes can make....

This is not an abnormal situation. All Christians go through experiences of this nature. They may be "up" one moment, lifted up into the heavenly places, and "down" the next when they are again confronted with the reality of the old sinful nature. This is normal Christian living!

Because we have received all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus does not mean that we live in and experience all of those blessings.

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