Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart

The Lord wants to release us from desires that do not bring Him glory, that pollute our spirits and our minds, so that we do not access the fullness of joy that He wants to brings us, that weigh us down and hold us back in our spiritual progress.  1st Thessalonians 4 deals with one of those powerful areas:
3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;4that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,5not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
If our passions are not under the control of the Holy Spirit, then we are in a state of spiritual risk, and our Christian experience will be less than what God would intend.   We are promised triumph in Christ, but in order to walk in it, we have to recognize areas of spiritual vulnerability, reject temptation, apply God's truth, and be active in spiritual warfare in resisting the devil. 
Remember the insight from 1st Thessalonians 4, verse 7:7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness...

Yesterday, I shared about the ongoing challenge that we have as believers to remove, or put off, the old nature, the flesh - to put those elements of our unregenerated nature to death - and release the power of the new creation in Christ Jesus.   There is a struggle, and we recognize that God has promised us victory - but we have to appropriate His resources in order to walk in the freedom that He promises.

Pastor and blogger Tim Challies, who is now a fellow columnist for River Region's Journey magazine, began an initiative on the first day of this month called, "31 Days of Purity." He writes at his website, Challies.com:

Today, along with several thousand men, I am beginning “31 Days of Purity.” This is for all of us—for those who are young and those who are old, for those who are married and those who are single, for those who struggle mightily in the area of sexual sin and for those who may barely struggle at all. It is a time—a month—to focus on what the Bible says about sexual purity. 

He goes on to write:

As we begin these days together, I think we ought to begin with the gospel.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures… (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). (English Standard Version)

Today, his blog post deals with passion for God's Word.   He writes that:

God’s Word cuts and cuts deep. This kind of cutting doesn’t always feel like a blessing to those who are living in impurity. It hurts. It convicts. It wounds as it penetrates our hearts and exposes our sin. God’s Word lays us bare before Yahweh. But it also strengthens and sustains. God’s Word is the weapon that He wields (and that we wield) in our fight against impurity. It is through His powerful Word that mountains melt like wax. It was through His powerful Word that your heart came alive. And it will be through His powerful Word that our impure hearts will be transformed into the likeness of His Son.

He and his team have written on numerous topics in this time period.  Topics have included: putting sin to death, fleeing temptation, and the joy of the Lord.

You know, I think this emphasis on purity can be expanded to include a variety of areas in which we struggle. Because God's Word is living and active, we know that as we intentionally apply His truth and meditate on the passages of Scripture that address our problem areas, we can begin to walk in His victory.   God has given to us the antidote to the impurities in our lives, areas of darkness in which the Spirit of God desires to operate.

Remember, the Word of God is not to be used in a random manner.  During Lent, people will generally concentrate on one area in which to abstain.  So, in adopting the same sort of approach, in the inward struggle to release the Spirit of God to do His transformative work, I think it can be very helpful to identify a particular area in which we desire for His Spirit to work.  That's not to say we're not dealing with a lot of different things at any one time, but to concentrate on one, as Tim Challies is doing this month regarding purity, can really help us focus.  So, isolate an area, identify Scriptures that address it, and infuse the power of God's Word and His Holy Spirit to help you in walking in His freedom.