The surgeon has been waiting.
He has shown you the x-ray. He has identified the tumor. He has explained the procedure. He has scheduled the operating room. And you have postponed. Again and again. Because surgery is painful, and you are not yet convinced the tumor is serious.
But the tumor is serious. And it is growing.
Jesus did not speak metaphorically about tearing out eyes and cutting off hands to make a rhetorical point. He was describing the radical surgery required to deal with sin that is destroying you. Not management. Not gradual reduction. Amputation.
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out. This is not the language of accommodation. This is the language of emergency. This is triage on a battlefield, where leaving the wound untreated guarantees death.
What surgery have you been postponing?
What sin has God identified that you have scheduled for "later"? What tumor have you acknowledged but refused to remove? What radical action has the Surgeon prescribed that you have deemed too extreme?
It is better to lose one member than to lose everything. It is better to walk with a limp than to be carried to a grave. It is better to feel the pain of surgery than the destruction of disease.
Stop postponing. The Surgeon is waiting. The operating room is ready.
The only question is whether you will submit to the scalpel before it is too late.
PRAYER: Lord, I have been postponing surgery. You have shown me what needs to be removed, and I have scheduled it for later. But later never comes, and the tumor grows. Today I stop postponing. I submit to the scalpel. Whatever must be cut, cut it. Whatever must be removed, remove it. Better to live wounded than to die whole. In Jesus' name. Amen.
ACTION: What radical action has God been calling you to take that you have been postponing? Stop postponing. Take the first step today.