Life seems so much harder, when you decide to do the right thing.
I have believed for a while that I was an unfeigned believer and that God was the first priority for me; but it not until last night that I realized that this was not so, not as much anyway, as I thought myself to be.
We as human beings are inherently selfish, sinful and weak. There is an evil dark side of our nature that, for most, fuels our very existence. This dark side is what our first parents, Adam and Eve, let into our lives when they fell from grace and obeyed the devil over obeying God. This same human nature is against everything that we were created to be and is in constant conflict with our true nature. True in the sense that, God, in His image, created in us a nature like His, in which we were to identify with Him. It was the correct and actual semblance of what human beings were supposed to be like.
Because of His love for us, God sent His son, to redeem us from our fallen selves. Jesus took the cup of death in our place. He purchased a new life for us, through his precious blood. He saved our souls, our hearts and our very lives from damnation. The Lord, in his infinite love took our place; he died, was buried, went to hell and rose on the 3rd day- he won the battle for our souls!
How then, do not owe him our lives. What sort of justification is there, if any, for us not to give ourselves wholly unto him?
It is this understanding of what It means to surrender our lives to the Lord, and to give up our heart, soul, body and mind to him- that has led me to suffer in the realization that I have not yet wholly given up my life to the Lord.
Most of us live a double life. We waver between the things of this world and the things of God. We secretly hope that God will not be too strict so us to remember every little thing that we do wrong, so long as we go to church on Sunday, fast every month, are generally good to people; while yet we can indulge in a little sexual immorality, get drunk once in a while and be negatively good- we are “Lukewarm- neither hot nor cold”. We forget the consequences of such a life- God promises to spit such people out of his Kingdom.
The Lord requires our full hearts. We are to give ourselves wholly unto the Lord, holding nothing back. Jesus gave up everything for us, why would we think that it is sufficient to give him back just a portion of our lives? It is not right that we say a chain of prayer every Monday morning yet when we get to the office, we gossip about our boss; that we preach about being born again yet we are recovering from a hangover from the night before; that we place “I love Jesus” bumper stickers on our cars as we drive to commit acts of fornication; that we pray the morning prayer at our desks in the office yet we spend half the time on internet chat flirting with friends. God forbid!
Let us exhort ourselves through the pain of our lives to let go and let God, to really let go and let God. God demands our full commitment, not just part of it, lest we are struck dead like Ananias and his wife Sapphira for pretending to offer their hearts to God yet they kept the greatest part for themselves.
If God can help us, guide us, feed us, clothe us and keep us alive, even when we are sinful as we are and without much effort, how much more will he take care of us when we let Him lead the way? Why O why are we so in love with the flesh so as not to fully renounce our bodies, which for the most part of our lives has held us bound in chains of disease, pain and suffering? Why?
Most times, we are afraid of our fellow man. We suffer to imagine what people will say when we become born again and are liable for our actions. Many of us serve the world, the flesh during the day and then like Nicodemus we sneak into the night, secretly for fear of being judged, fall on our knees to God, with a mind to see God’s power in our lives, but inherently afraid of being ridiculed by our friends and peers. But what did the Lord say of such behavior: “the friendship of this world means enmity against God”.
But if there is anyone we are deceiving, it is ourselves, because “God cannot be mocked”. He sees our hearts and judges us thereof. True, when we choose to do the right thing, we will be judged and will be met with contempt. We may loose friends, jobs, and pride, but the price of eternal life is too grave a gift to forego. What we should let go of are the eccentricities of the world and walk the narrow path. Life seems so much easier when we follow the world, but it far less rewarding.
We should embrace the servile character of our Lord and humble ourselves before God. We should consciously seek to learn, to know and to see God and His power manifest in our lives today.
Let us think then, let us repent and change our lives. Let us receive a new and clean rebirth. We might think that we have already done much for Christ, but we cannot afford to loose even the little we have because we could not do more. Let us every day, every moment give ourselves to the full will of God, always praying, always watching and always yearning for Him to lead us to the truth- for those that are led by the spirit of God are the children of the God.
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