September 8

Job 34:1-35:16
Psalm 106:24-31
Proverbs 22:5-6
1 Corinthians 12:21-13:13

Katargeo
When I was a child … I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things.
—1 Corinthians 13:11

Today we ask ourselves: how do we deal with those pushes from our past which tend to influence and control our present attitudes and reactions?

We must find how and where they began. They come especially from the early formative years of childhood. There we were subjected to influences, ideas, and experiences that helped to shape our expectations and attitudes to life. Many of these influences, ideas, and experiences were good—and this point must not be overlooked—but by the same token, many were bad. These negative things sometimes stay inside us and can become dictating forces in our lives. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to track down some of these hidden agendas, and we then need to deal with them in a mature and adult manner.

How do we do this? Look once again at the verse before us today: “When I became a man, I put aside childish things.” The Greek word for “put away” is katargeo. It is an extremely strong word, meaning “to put away, to break a hold, finish it off, have done with, render inoperative.”

Childhood agendas don’t just fall away like the leaves fall off the trees in the autumn; we have to “put them away”—we have to katargeo them—and be finished with childish things. If the Holy Spirit has identified any hidden agendas in your life, then bring them to Him now and lay them at His feet. Decide to have done with them. Get out of the passenger seat and into the driving seat. Remember—with God, all things are possible.

Prayer
O Father, give me the victory over all the enemies that may be within me. Katargeo them—render them inoperative—once and for all. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Further Study
Heb 12:1-13; Isa 55:7; Eph 4:22
What are we to throw off?
What does “forsake” mean?

Every Day with Jesus Daily Bible – September 08