You are who and where you are today because of the choices you have made. This is true in your personal life, and most assuredly true in your spiritual life. You are as close to God as you choose to be. Each day of our lives, we choose whether or not to do what Christ has instructed us to do. Spiritually speaking, we are not a victim of circumstance; we are the product and sum total of our choices.
You can’t blame anyone else for the state of your Spiritual progress. Holiness is your choice. Obedience is your choice. No matter your circumstances, your relationship with God is all up to you. He simply waits for you to take hold of everything He offers.
Who we are the moment we awaken each morning is the result of the culmination of the decisions we made yesterday and every preceding day of our life. While at first blush this might seem discouraging, I submit it should excite us! If you are unhappy with your spiritual walk or progress, it is totally within your control to improve it. God is ever waiting to honor your efforts and to reveal more and more of Himself. I believe scripture reveals He honors our efforts and intention rather than our execution. We don’t have to be perfect. It’s okay to fail, but you must recognize the only way to fail is to try in the first place.
Every day we are bombarded with decisions ranging from the mundane to the monumental. Many make the mistake of trying to separate their spiritual lives from their “real” lives. There is no distinction. All things have spiritual aspects to them. Our physical world is only a subset of reality. We need to always be thinking spiritually first. If we live our lives in a manner pleasing to God, nothing else really matters. The physical is temporary while the spiritual is eternal.
With this in mind, every decision becomes a spiritual choice. Whatever you face, ask “Which decision would most honor God and have the most impact on bringing His Kingdom to earth?” How we respond to an unkind word, a crisis, or even a success should reflect the character of God. Every decision we make either amplifies or restricts the light of Jesus shining through us.
Holiness is your choice. You alone can decide to obey Christ or pursue your own selfish desires. It really is that simple, but we try and overcomplicate the issue in order to rationalize why we aren’t further along the path to discipleship than we currently are. Forming the habit of taking responsibility for our own decisions is painful at first, but it is ultimately liberating. Once you recognize holiness is your choice, you realize it is something obtainable in your life. You need only choose to pursue it. You need only train your mind to consistently choose to obey Jesus. Your relationship to God is exactly what you choose to make it. How badly do you want to surrender everything to Christ? It’s entirely up to you.