"HOW PRACTICE ENSLAVES US"

Written by Rob Bailes


How can practicing make ME a slave?"



You might be asking yourself this question, completely unaware that the things we practice every day may be holding us hostage. When I say practice, I mean doing the things that we desire or have learned to do without thinking that may bring us harm. As I was thinking about this, I realized that it isn't just about our deliberate decisions in life that can harm us.

Sometimes we get into the habit of doing things that seem acceptable by one person's standards, but may be totally unacceptable to another person. Until we actually are told, we may think everything is just fine in how we are doing things.

We could even get rewarded for doing things in such a way that seems great to all who are involved, only to find out later that the way that they had you had been taught and what they praised you for was, not only wrong, but was causing allot of negative consequences for others and yourself.

When this revelation takes place, you suddenly become surprised and disappointed that you had been misguided, wasting a portion of your life spent here on this earth. I know that some of you may be thinking,"What is the point and why is he wasting my time with this subject? I don't even have any bad habits!" and it may seem like this isn't for you, but at least read the next paragraph as I share an experience from my life, as I was just getting started in working for a living.

I was about twenty-four years old and had been working for a couple of years as an interior trim carpenter. The focus of each day for my boss was to put as much trim on the walls as possible and he was particular about some things, but other things he wasn't so picky about.

I often heard him say things like, "The painter will get that!" as he left a large crack in the joint where he had cut the board wrong and he'd nail it up with his fast shooting nail gun. Other times he would say, "Looks good from my house!" as he would nail up a piece of splintered material that was defected in some way. His attitude was one that said, "I'm not concerned because I just need to get done" and guess what, no one ever said a word to him about it.

The Contractor praised our work all the time and one of the houses we trimmed out in Raleigh NC even won the "Parade of Homes" Award for the nicest house in the homes entered for this contest. Many contractors would enter one or more houses for people to parade through each year and they would get judged to see who could produce the biggest, most luxurious house by the date of the event. The thing is that all of the homes entered were about the same size and price range and the builders often put more time and emphasis on that house.

My next job was with a company who had been in Raleigh for over sixty years and who only built very expensive homes. As a matter of fact, they only built three houses a year and each house took all year to build, using twenty-five carpenters. Some of the carpenters had been with this company for over thirty years and they had seen my kind come and go many times over the years.

It was my first day on the job and I was put on a framing crew of about five guys and I'll never forget how I spent the whole morning running circles around those guys. A couple of the guys kept telling me to slow down and I thought they were just worried I was going to show them up.

You see, my employer from the previous job loved to create competition between us, so we would work even faster, putting more money into his pocket. Regardless of the suggestions to slow down, I kept going full speed, practically in a running pace and I felt good about myself and what I was doing. I remember even thinking,"It won't take long to get a raise at this place!".

Little did I know that the superintendent was also going to start telling me to slow down. That really threw me a curve because I had been taught for the past two years to go faster and now my superintendent wants me to slow down! It was so confusing! Why? I can tell you now, but I couldn't tell you at that time. I had formed habits that led to allot of little mistakes, mistakes that were not acceptable in the caliber of homes I was now involved in building. It literally took me practicing to slow down and concentrate for a period of about six months before I finally understood the difference and why it was so important!

I'm sure some of you are scratching your head right now and thinking, "It still doesn't make sense!", but that is because of the way you have been trained and the things that you have been practicing.

Yes, that's right!

The things we practice are what forms our habits, good or bad. We may not realize that we have practiced something bad until someone takes the time to spend showing us how it makes a difference and effects the world around us. Some things we do may be actually harming our children or spouse or others in the world around us and we may be totally ignorant of this because we are doing what we learned to do as we were forming our habits.

This brings me to the verse that caused me to think about this story in the first place. I was studying verses that say something about our bodies and I came across this verse.

Romans 8:5-6
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

We don't just decide to think about bad things.

Most often we learn about them while we are growing up and sometimes we are even taught it's ok to do a little wrong every now and then. The problem is that it develops our mind into the person we become and it leads us to destruction in the end.

So, how do we keep from destroying ourselves? It says that being spiritual minded is life. That would be the opposite of death, wouldn't it?

Spiritually minded means to focus our minds on the things that we find in the Word of God and to develop new habits by changing the things that we practice. If we are practicing satisfying only the body, our thinking is going to constantly take us to places where you find your human satisfaction never quenched. But you cannot deny that your spirit has needs too and this is what we ignore when we dwell entirely on our body's desires. Habit, my friend; habit is what we develop by practicing it over and over until it is what we have become.

I'd like to share a few verses with you from the same chapter that gives us a guide for how we ought to practice today,

Romans 8:13-15
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

In verse thirteen, the word mortify in the Greek is
thanatoō
It is pronounced than-at-o'-o
It means to kill (literally or figuratively): - become dead, (cause to be) put to death, kill, mortify.

The word deeds in the Greek is
praxis
It is pronounced prax'-is
It means to practice, that is, (concretely) an act; by extension a function: - deed, office, work.

So when we look at the meaning of this passage we can see that we need to basically put an end to the practice of our body and by doing this we will live. But why? In the next verse we are told that in doing this we are led by the actual Spirit of God from within our minds and bodies and we are, not may be or will be, but we are the sons of God.

How?

Because our spirit changes from a spirit of slavery and fear of death to the Spirit of adoption into the family of God as one of His children.

Look at the Greek for the word adopt,

uihothesia
It is pronounced hwee-oth-es-ee'-ah
It means the placing as a son, that is, adoption (figuratively Christian sonship in respect to God): - adoption (of children, of sons).

If we, through the changing of our Spirit destroy the practices of our body that we have made into daily habits, the fear of death will be gone and our slavery to our body will cease to exist.
Instead, we will enjoy new life as the child of God and when anyone receives this adoption they will be able to call out, Abba, Father.

Paul used the Jewish and the Gentile version of the title for Father so that all would know that they are welcome to receive and there is adoption and new life available for all of mankind .

Wisdom from the Word

Romans 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.