The End of the Will
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title: The End of the Will ------------------- Date: 1/26/2002
Keywords:
"emotion" "reason" "will"
Welcome
to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual
temptation.
Passage: Exodus 4:10-11*
10. Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."
11. The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?"
Questions
1. Why did God reject Moses' reason for refusing his mission?
2. How can we apply this insight to our lives?
Practical help
The concept of the will vanished in the twentieth century. Philosophers used to say the will ruled over reason and emotion. Now people who do right receive scant praise ("they did what was logical"), and those who do wrong suffer no blame ("the root causes go far deeper than the act"). Meanwhile, the reality of the will — of personal responsibility — vanished. Maybe sometime around 1968.
But the excuse goes much further back than the Summer of Love. Moses tried it out on God — something along the lines of "I'm not physically capable of the job you've set before for me." People who struggle with pornography know what he means. Sometimes we think we're just not ... designed ... for abstinence.
Nonsense. God answered Moses and us. He made our bodies, and he will help us make right choices. Our job? Exercise our god-given wills. Contrary to popular belief, reason and emotion need not rule us.
eXXit
homepage
Index of three-minute studies
Copyright 2002 by eXXit
*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright
The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by
permission."
|