(Hebrews 2:1)
Sometimes I feel like I am one of the disciples in the Garden. Unfortunately, God catches me sleeping a lot. I get so caught up, comfortable even, in the routine of life: school, work, and all the mundane tasks in between. I read my Bible..when I get to it. I go to church on Sundays and Chapel on Wednesdays and listen to the nice little messages. But when was the last time I was awake? I mean, when was the last time that I paid close attention to what the Lord was trying to say to me?
But the past few weeks, the Lord has been shaking my shoulder and telling me to "Wake up!"
See, the problem with getting comfortable in life is that we will drift away from what we know is right. We work so hard to get in tune with the Lord, we are living life the way that we ought...and so we figure we are okay, and go to sleep in our relationship with Christ. But when we finally wake up, we find ourselves in a much different place than we went to sleep in. One "little" sin leads to one sin that we tell ourselves isn't much worse...until we are living a life contrary to the word of God.
For me, it has been like: "okay. This one tiny little thing won't hurt me. It won't hurt to do this, or to say this...just this one time. It's just once." Once usually turns into twice, and twice turns into ten, and so on so forth. I've tuned out the Holy Spirit, and I have drifted off into my comfortable sleep. Going through life, and living of the world.
And then BAM! like a slap on the forehead, He continues to shake me awake:
" I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
(Romans 12:1)
This passage is so familiar to me. I don't know how many messages I have heard on it in my lifetime. I know there have been at least 2 this year alone. But somewhere, there has been a mental disconnect. I have been too busy being comfortable in my own happy little world, sleeping quite soundly I might add, that I totally miss the whole point. I am pretty sure that this passage doesn't read: "you probably should sometimes present half of your not so holy, and not so acceptable self to God as your act of your spiritual worship"...nor does it continue in verse 2, saying: "live like you want. Small sins don't matter. You could be transformed by actually paying attention, and allowing your mind to be renewed to the will of God, but it isn't mandatory". It almost feels blasphemous to say that. But it gets better. The truly sad thing is....OUR LIVES REFLECT THAT STATEMENT A LOT OF THE TIME!
Thinking about my own personal walk, I just don't understand. Why, why, why would I want to trade Jesus for the momentary pleasures, the momentary acceptance of living for myself and of the world? Why?! Jesus gave everything, I mean, everything for me so that I am not held captive in the bonds of the world...and I will trade that mercy, that grace, that love...for something that is not going to last. For things that will rob me, hold me, and leave me empty in the end. For things that do not matter. Let the world hate me. Why should I care?
Lord, help my stupidity.
But quite the contrary to the way I--even we--tend to live, we are called to:
- give up all rights to ourselves, dying to our own desires and follow Jesus
- spend time with the Lord, learning to know his will so that we can follow Christ.
Before this can even happen though, we have to wake up, and pay attention.
Waking up,
Alicia
Psalm 138:8
No comments:
Post a Comment