Thursday, May 30, 2019
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of
fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23
I have
learned to pay attention to Grandma. Now,
that certainly applies to the Grandma I live with, but it also reveres the tons
of wisdom that flow from Grandma’s hearts everywhere. My Mother’s Mom, Grandma Carrie, had a
favorite expression that Solomon would’ve loved: Enough is too much!
Over the
years I have learned to decode this piece of wisdom that corresponds so well to
the Godly advice of Scripture. Now, it
seems a contradiction that having enough isn’t right, but Grandma said
it was too much. The arguable point
here is that our natural appetites for anything we like will always take us
over the top if we get what we want.
Consider
Solomon’s advice on the matter:
Do you like honey? Don’t eat too much, or it will make you sick!
Don’t visit your neighbors too often, or you will wear out your welcome.
Proverbs 25:16-17
Does that
sound like Grandma to you? Who can argue
against those warnings? My Dad would
shout a loud “amen” here, especially to that honey thing. During the Great Depression my Dad was a
teenager. His parent’s home was an apartment
in New York, on the second floor, right over a neighborhood delicatessen. The owner took a liking to my Dad, and every
day handed him several samples of cheeses when he was coming or going.
It was
great, free cheese! But after six months
of the fabulous cheese giveaways enough became too much! To the day he died my dad couldn’t be
comfortable in the same room with cheese!
This
brings us to the spiritual warning of too much cheese or anything
else for which we would sacrifice moderation:
A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.
Proverbs 25:28
The
obvious reference here is a city or nation that lets its guard down becoming
easy prey for the enemy. If you’re going
to remain free, the cost is to remain vigilant.
That means more than being tough to keep the bad guys out of your
business, it also means taking care to guard your appetite for too much of any
good thing, because it will make you easy prey for the chief enemy:
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
This advice
from Grandma Carrie (by way of Solomon) about enough being too much is proved
out in Scripture, even in Satan’s life.
Ultimately, his over-the-top appetite for “devouring” the spiritual life
of God’s children will be his enough undoing. That war against God that he loves so much
will be his too much!
For You Today
Like a city without walls is hard to defend, so is your spirit without
self-control. So, pay careful attention
to developing moderation and self-denial; you either rule your spirit or lose
it!
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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©
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