Why is it that Christians don't look much different that non-Christians other than myabe attending church?
Why is it that Christians show no faith in times when it should be the greatest?
Is it because God isn't enough?........easy answer......NO
It is because God isn't in enough of us. We have compartmentalized Him. We box him up and put Him on the shelf, then every once in a while we take Him down and dust Him off in order to fulfill some misdirected view that we have a responsibility to do that in assuring our salvation…what a bunch of CRAP!
The sad thing is, I think, most of us don't even realize that we believe that and if someone were to ask us we would prob deny that we believe that to be true and yet our lives scream that we believe it to be true.
God designed us to be relational…originally He designed us to have a relationship with Him, but we all know what happened. That doesn't give us the right to treat Him like a genie. We take Him down, rub Him, make a wish and then put Him back away. Then we wonder why we don't feel like God is with us…don't blame Him, you boxed Him up and put Him on the shelf. It wasn't His choice!
The cool thing is, my friends, in 1 John 1:9 it says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
All it takes is a little humility and a repentant heart to restore the relationship and then you can start building it back again…hopefully keeping Him out of the box and off the shelf…and God will become so much more than enough for you.
1 comment:
Hello to all my eternal brothers and sister's in Christ!
There is no question that God is enough, it is only we as individuals who can limit His influence in our lives.
I think a few reasons for our limiting Him, whether on purpose or unknowingly, is our lack of understanding of who He really is and what He has truly done for us through Christ's atoning sacrifice as well as our choice to not live fully, obediently, and unreservedly for Him and for His glory. We can easily love our sinful tendencies and the temptations of the world too much to change, regardless of what God says. We demonstrate to God that we are still the Lord of our lives by our obvious decisions and actions, not He. But we must remember that we only come alive in our souls at the same time we die to ourself! This was Christ's repeated message to us.
We need to confess immediately and admit to God that we really haven't cared very much or spent the time to get to know Him better. Our actions reveal exactly and unmistakably how important God is in our individual lives. We need to be honest enough with ourselves to see this and make the necessary adjustments to align our lives with Him. And like Michael said, with a humble and repentant heart, seek to know Him, obey Him, and love Him more and more each day.
What an unfathomable right God has given to us in Christ, that we CAN get to know Him better, what His character is like, what He likes and dislikes, what He desires for our lives, how much He loves us, etc. How often, I think, we completely take this truth for granted! Why in the world would we NOT want to know this God more intimately that we claim is our Savior, Creator, and Lord? Is it laziness, selfishness, ambivalence, refusal to obey Him? Maybe we are under the false impression that we can't REALLY know God....so why bother investing the time in building that relationship. But God boldy declares to us, "You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with ALL your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 29:13-14) Are you truly seeking God with all your heart...not just a fraction of it at best? The question is one each of us MUST answer for ourselves. God already knows the answer.
God hates it when His people are "sitting on the fence" in their walk with Him. This hinders His full power from being brought to bear in our lives. Revelation 3:15-16 says (this is Jesus talking), "I know you deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of My mouth." And I love what Elijah says in the book of 1 Kings, verse 21, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him." Basically God is saying, "if you SAY you believe in Me, then really follow Me and obey Me...don't obey your fleshly desires or what the "world" says is right or pleasurable. Don't "waver" between following Me AND your desires....or Me AND the world....or Me AND anything! Are you wavering? We as individuals must make up our minds once and for all and be determined, no matter what, to persevere and follow and love God at all times at all costs. Anything short of this total abandon of our life to God will be a life lived in less than the fullness He desires for us and purchased for us through His death.
So we must make this God we say we love our life's pursuit and desire. I pray He does become our magnificent obsession. Don't put it off another day, another second. Return to Him in brokenness and humility and with profound gratitude, knowing that He loved us enough to pay our unpayable fine in His own blood and pain. That's a God I want to follow and know! That's a God who will always be ENOUGH!
Your brother in Christ!
Mike McEniry =)
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