Too Many Cashews
June 9, 2010I love cashews but they don’t love me. So I have to limit how many I eat and how often I eat them. Well, I wish I could say that I always stay within my proper limits but I don’t. I had a couple of handfuls three days in a row this week and my stomach decided to let me know that I exceeded my limit.
There is a spiritual principle here. You see Plato believed that man’s problem was that he was ignorant. So the answer to a man’s problems was knowledge. Now this sounds good but it just isn’t true. Plato was wrong. I was fully aware that I can’t eat too many cashew before I get a belly ache. But I ate too many anyway.
That’s why the Bible doesn’t say that knowledge is the answer to what ills mankind. In fact, the Apostle Paul turns to the whole Greek world upside down when he writes in Romans 7:14-25 that he cannot do the good he knows to do. He is saying, “Plato, you’re wrong”. I keep doing the things I know I shouldn’t.
You see the Bible doesn’t say that we need more knowledge (though knowledge in and of itself isn’t bad). What we need is the ability, the power to do what we know to do. And that’s where Jesus comes in. Jesus didn’t come to educate us. He came to empower us. He came to die for our failure to do what we know to do (the Bible calls this sin). But once we receive Him we not only get forgiveness, we get help for living.
Yes, we will make mistakes and eat too many cashews. But the reason I failed is that I didn’t ask him to help me in the first place.
So if you need help overcoming a hurt, habit, or hang up. Look up and ask Jesus to help.
