You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. Galatians 5:13
“To live rightly in this world we must understand and accept God’s particular calling for our lives, and within that call, use moderately the resources He provides…Each calling is unique, each journey we take, even though we walk next to others, is especially appointed by God, so we are to take all that He has given us and made us, and use this toward His ends.”
Thomas D. Hawkes in Sanctification: A User’s Guide to Becoming More Like Jesus (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2020) 208. Thanks again to Don Knox for alerting me to this book.
God blesses us with resources to accomplish His purposes, His ends. As He blesses us, we must not indulge the flesh with them. This is key to living rightly with moderation.
Many people rationalize self indulgence rather than practice sharing.
What Hawkes draws out is that our callings are unique, so the way God resources us will be different. I don’t have what you have, and vice versa. You don’t have what He has given me.
So, comparing is not the answer, submitting everything is the secret.
We must each submit all we are and all we have to God and all of it to be used toward accomplishing His purposes for His glory. Moderation comes into view as meeting our needs, not our wants.