Are You Willing to Go Under the Knife?

About 8 years ago, I was diagnosed with melanoma—skin cancer. In a routine check-up, the dermatologist found a small spot on my right forearm. He was able to cut it out in the office. But when the biopsy came back “positive” for cancer, he scheduled surgery to remove the skin surrounding the spot. This time, I really went “under the knife.” I am cancer-free ever since.
How is self-centeredness like cancer of the soul?
Each cell within a healthy body works in cooperation with other cells for the well-being of the whole organism. But sometimes a group of rebel cells show up, refusing to serve the whole, acting independent of other cells—serving their own selfish interests! The result is cancer. These cancer cells, working against the healthy cells, spread their destructiveness to the organism they no longer support, resulting in death.

Just as self-centered and independent cells produce physical cancer; likewise our self-centered and independent self-life (called flesh) is the cause of spiritual disease in us. (For a list of these fleshly traits, read Galatians 5:19-21.)

Just as the cure for cancer is the surgeon’s knife, so too is God’s cure for the venom-spreading self-life. The Word(s) of God, the Bible, first reveals the flesh, and then works like a surgeon’s knife to cut and remove the vicious "tissues." For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are (Hebrews 4:12 NLT).

What spiritually cancerous tumors are even now growing in your self-life? Are you willing to go under the knife? Your obedience to the Word of God will result in a powerful release of Christ's life into your soul and eradicate the power of the self-centered flesh.