Do you remember how you felt when you first gave Christ control of your life, assuming you are a professing Christian (if you arent and are thinking about it, keep reading because this will likely give you some insight as to what to expect along the way) and asked Him to be your Lord and Savior? Yes, there was a “warm fuzzy feeling“, but you knew that your life had changed for the good and it was far beyond anything a “feeling” could explain. You had received the gift of eternal life and a relationship with Christ, the God of the universe…
After a while maybe you felt that excitement wear off a little… mine did… I still had an underlying peace and I still went through the motions of doing what I thought was right… I went to church, I prayed, I read my Bible. I did all of those things as a true Christian…but it still wasn’t the same awe inspiring place I experienced in the beginning. I would still see God provide evidence that He was involved in my life now and then, but I was settling in to the “suburbs” of God’s will, you know, a few miles outside of the center of it. The hard part about it all is I didn’t even realize it - maybe you are there and don’t realize it. If that is the case I hope this message helps you get there.
I started to think that this was just me growing up and getting older, more mature… this must be what it is like to be a Christian. You are on a high for a while and then like any new relationship, the sparks soon wear off and then you just live it out as best you can. Meanwhile your walk with Christ quietly, slowly, and subtly slides lower in the hierarchy of what matters most in your life. It is such a subtle change that you dont even notice it is happening… Day by day you think about God when you are alone in your car or at night before you go to sleep…after all you have bills to pay and children to raise…life is busy…that is how it has to be.
Wow is that wrong!!!!
God has shown me recently that not only can you live in that relational “sweet spot”, but He longs for us to be there. So why was I not living there all of these years?
THE ANSWER: I was initially “infatuated” with God, but I did not know how to love God. In the beginning I thought I was loving God by going through the motions of going to church and doing “what was right”, etc… those things are good and necessary for a closer walk with him, but they do not constitute a love for God. Because I did not know how to love Him, Jesus somehow went from being my Lord and Savior, to being a 2000 year old character in a book I was supposed to read everyday but didn’t. I had no clue how to genuinely love Him.
After a long time of going through the motions as a genuine Christian no longer able to experience the fullness that truly loving God can bring, He has slowly revealed to me the answer to what I did not know how to do - how to love Him.
I will give you the cliff notes.
If you are at a place where you “think” things are fine with your walk with God…then you are where I was. I didn’t even know there was a problem. Things are no longer fine…things are ALIVE and THRIVING!!! THis isn’t an emotional high…this is chain breaking, barrier smashing, powerful, victorious, Christ-centered passion.
The key to this passionate relationship with Christ is surrender. “Surrender what”, you ask? Surrender whatever it is that you don’t want to surrender, because that is exactly what you love more than Christ. Surrender your money, surrender your addiction, surrender your guilty pleasure. The very thing that you burried when God said I want the attention you are giving to _________. Let it go, get away from it because that is what is keeping you from living in the fullness of what He has for you. If you have a problem with something…eliminate it from your life and watch God smash the walls that are hindering a closer walk with Him. It doesn’t even have to be a “bad” thing…it only has to be something you are holding onto tighter than you are holding on to Him.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:37-39
“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus answered my question with this passage. What could we possibly love more than our family…our father, mother, son, or daughter? Notice how He skipped all of the things that should be trivial and went for the juggular. He didn’t say “he who battles….” the love of money, the career, the alcohol, the cigarettes, the internet pornography addiction, the prescription drug addiction, the gossip, the affair, the thousands of other things that we hide from the rest of the world in our hearts and minds because our flesh does not want to let go of it. He went straight past all of those things to what we love most…our family…yet we are to love Him more than even our parents or our children… How can this be?
Let’s read that verse again and fill in the blank:
“Anyone who loves his __________ or __________ more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his __________ or __________ more than me is not worthy of me;”
This is Jesus saying; if there is anything we are not willing to give up for Him, then we are not worthy of what He has for us and we will not receive it. The way we learn to genuinely and truly love Christ is to surrender whatever we can put in those blanks. To do that means we have to take up our cross every single day…we must go through the pain of letting go…we must “crucify our desires” to realize the fullness of God in Christ.
“…and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
We must proactively reciprocate the love process EVEN WHEN WE DO NOT FEEL LIKE WE NEED TO OR WANT TO… THIS IS WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE!!! Jesus has already shown how much he loves us by laying down his life and taking the blame for our sins. He made us holy, even though we are all born into this world so far away from anything that even resembles holiness.
Surrender the hard stuff…
This is how we seek Christ… This is how we know Christ…
This is how we love Christ… This is how we live in the center of God’s will…
This is how His voice is easily discerned and His faithfulness is more evident than ever before.
My prayer is that each of us will come to a place where we can no longer fill in the blanks.
May we also remember His grace along the way… this isn’t a plea to promote following the rules to gain holiness, this is a life long process of how loving God creates a deeper walk with Him; It creates an awareness of anything unholy that might be present in our lives so much that it feels like a blister on our soul that needs attention. It needs the power, strength, instruction, and love that only more of Christ can bring. Love Him more.
In Christ,
Brad
View Brad’s Video for Brad’s current radio hit “Anyway” Here:
http://www.godtube.com/view_video?viewkey=76ce44a847c850b61c58
Read his Feature Article “Fling Poo Justice” on Transparent Christian Magazine.
Check out his Website at: www.bradreynolds.com.
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