Clean Break (1 Peter 4:2-3)

When I started my own business, selecting a location was one of my most important decisions. There were many options and I knew I wanted to have it close to my home, without traveling on freeways. While deliberating on several locations, an unexpected offer came to me from one of my former partners. He offered me the option to sublease space within the building within which my former partners operated. In fact, it was on the floor below my current office. It was a very generous offer and since I agreed to service my former clients while building my new practice, it seemed ideal. When news of the potential deal quickly spread, one of my colleagues pulled me aside. “I hear you are thinking of subleasing the office space downstairs.”

I nodded. 

“Bad idea.”

I was puzzled. “Why? It would be ideal. I would not have to hire my own staff, I would be working with the same people.”

He nodded. “Yes, and they would still be working with you. Don’t you see? The partners are doing this to keep an eye on you. By having your cases flow through the existing staff, they will know exactly what you are doing. It is all about control. You think you are creating your own business but you would not be independent. By controlling your staff and logistics, they would be controlling you. You need to make a clean break.”

My colleague was correct. I needed to leave and make a clean break. In life, there may be times when we have to completely cut ties with our former work associates or colleagues, even if there may be possible benefits to continuing the association.

When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I led a lifestyle that did not honor God. Although I attempted to maintain my same activities and relationships, it soon became clear that these were not consistent with my new relationship with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I needed to make a clean break.

You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. 

1 Peter 4:2-3 (NLT)

Through my own efforts, a clean break would have been impossible. Thanks be to God that through the power of His Holy Spirit, who indwells within me, He enabled me to replace my carnal desires for the world and my selfish desires with the noble and righteous values of God and His Kingdom. Through God’s grace and mercy, He enabled me to make a clean break and refocus my life upon serving God, receiving His unlimited blessings and benefits that the world can never match.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.