Are you a serious person? By this I mean, do you present yourself in faith as a stuffy, academically aloof, or “better than you” Christian? If you are like this or are more interested in appearing righteous than actually being righteous, then it is time to wake up. Jesus was born a carpenter’s son and lived a common life, despite being anything but common.
Jesus didn’t come to earth to redeem us because He felt sympathetic love for us, He came at His Father’s request to do a job, and that job was to defeat sin, overcome death, and to glorify God Himself. His task was to mend the rift that had occurred in the Garden of Eden between God the creator, Eve the woman, and Adam the man, whom He had created. He would do this by the only way possible... offering the blood sacrifice of His only begotten Son, Jesus.
Do you see God the Father as a gentle old grey haired man who forgives you regardless of what you do and without regard or memory of what, or who, you are? Well that isn’t so. Without the horrific and yet wonderful sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ we would be lost, because God’s very nature would prohibit His overlooking our sins. Our forgiveness is a supernatural event without precedent, which cleanses us of the once permanent stain of sin.
Have you ever received manna from heaven? Maybe you haven’t been the recipient of this heavenly food specifically, but has some form of spiritual or supernatural rescue or provision been provided for you? How about a call from God to be that answer, or help, to someone else’s need or prayer? When God uses us in this way we suddenly realize the immenseness of the blessing that comes from being in His service.
What sins do we have in our lives that have enslaved us? Do we have an overriding desire for something that drives us to turn it from righteousness to seek sinful fulfillment, or a need in our lives that makes us complicit or vulnerable to these sinful things? Either way, we have been enslaved, and our sin will rule us until we can find emancipation from it. Sexual predators are in the news almost every day... let’s take a look.
Do we search for God with all our heart, and in so doing are we seeking Him by His terms, or is our motivation to achieve our own self-gratification, or glory? As we pray and call His name are we continuously obeying His beckoning voice that tells us to “come”, or are we asking Him to come to where we are, and asking Him for favors on our own terms?
Do we believe that we are great men and women of God? Do we have stripes on our sleeves for all to see, as we live the years of our faith for everyone to marvel at? Is our goal for each day to show those around us how mightily we serve, or the pious nature of our calling? If so, then stop the pompous religiosity and seek out humility... seek out Jesus and lose the notoriety of practice.
When God is working in another’s life do we find ourselves getting in His way? Are we one of those people that are referred to as a “fixer”, but who lets themselves get out of control on a regular basis? Do we find that in an attempt to repair a situation we can come between God and the miracle He is about to perform? Do we let our own will and intellect overreach its bounds? Well if so, get ready to be corrected... and to possibly hurt the lives of others.
If you were to look around right now would you see God in everything about you? Would you look at the items in the room, or the trees in your backyard and say “God, how magnificent you are!”, or would you struggle to find him? Seeing God in every aspect of our lives, and in every scene, thing, or occurrence that makes us feel alive, takes spiritual training.
If we live according to the commandments, are we owed righteousness and everlasting life? How can we be so bold as to feel this way after Jesus walked into a vile pit of sin and human debasement, suffered, took on sin, died, and was raised again... all for us in our undeserving state. God created and loved us first, he chose us in love before the creation of the world, and knew us while we were yet in our mother’s womb. How is it we might feel that something we do would entitle us, or hold God accountable in some way?
Has Jesus changed your life? Has He altered the very essence of who you once were, or do you put Him on like a change of clothes each day to cover up the nakedness of sin that still exists underneath? Many portray one thing publicly, and then retreat into a private world that is quite different... is this us? Are there things we hide beneath our veneer of faith?
When God speaks do we answer straightway? When God says “Come” do we immediately go to Him? When Jesus says “Go do...” are we willing to drop whatever we are presently doing and go? By our very nature we are procrastinators, some of us more than others, but all of us have some degree of this trait in us. However, when God reaches out to us He expects action and not excuses, and for us to obey exactly as He has instructed. Are we obedient children of God?
Do you look back at your life of faith with regret? Do you look down and feel like a failure because you weren’t a Billy Graham, or haven’t made some great theological impact? This happens to pastors, missionaries, and church workers, quite often. But how about those of us who are lay people, the everyday Christians and parishioners? Do we think that we have let Jesus down because we haven’t been able to contribute a huge amount of money to the church, sit on the board, or head up a committee? Well let’s stop right there!! We are viewing our worth through worldly eyes.
Do you have routine habits of faith? Are you made proficient in your faith by setting aside certain times each day to regularly read, pray, or just contemplate God, and Jesus? If not, and you are just depending on random thoughts, or going to church once or twice a week, then you are missing out on a wonderful growing relationship.
What bubbles up from within you during prayer? Do you ever begin to pray and then hear yourself as if from some faraway place; speaking in a language of groans and utterances that you can’t translate into words, but feel perfectly conversant in within your heart? Our spirit, and the Holy Spirit that resides within us will speak together in a dialect known only in heaven if we give them rein to do so.