Here’s an obvious statement: followers of Jesus love God and hate sin. That’s something with which I think all believers would agree. Now for a maybe not so obvious question: “If it’s true we love God and hate sin, why don’t we live like it is true?” To love God and hate sin is easy for us to say. Demonstrating it on a consistent basis gets a bit dicey. We sometimes demonstrate our love for God, just as we occasionally demonstrate our hatred for sin. Until we reach a point where we regularly demonstrate these two truths in our everyday lives, it may be fair to question whether or not we are true disciples of Jesus.
commitment
Complacency and Laziness
Complacency and laziness are two of the deadliest enemies we face in our walk with Jesus. There are more insidious and despicable foes that will come our way, but none are more dangerous and deceptive than complacency and laziness. They sneak up on you with stealth-like wonder and infest themselves throughout your entire body. Complacency says we’ve “prayed the prayer” or “live life as a good person”. We’re good. We can coast from here. Complacency is fed by those who teach that our works don’t matter when it comes down to it. As long as we believe in Jesus we’re safe. Laziness is the close companion of complacency. It convinces you that it’s okay to spend a few extra hours sleeping or eating or watching television. After all, the world will still be there when we’re done. Meanwhile children starve, families are homeless, and people die faced with an eternity separated from the God who loves them.
Standards for Living
Much of our life is spent without giving a lot of conscious thought to our actions. We must recognize that people far from God are watching our every move, listening to our every word, observing every deed we do on behalf of others or ourselves. They watch us because they want to see if God really makes any difference in our lives. If we aren’t intentionally choosing to live in a way that honors Christ, we demonstrate to others that God really doesn’t change the way we live. This is tragic not only for us, but even more so to the one who rejects God because they see no point in following Him based on what they observe by watching us.
Are You a Fan or Follower?
The group of believers with whom I meet weekly recently started the video study based on Kyle Idleman’s excellent book, “Not a Fan”. It’s been a while since I read the book, but it was absolutely life changing for me, and I highly recommend you make it part of your annual reading list. I’ve written several articles in the past that were inspired by the book, but the group discussion has stirred some fresh thoughts in me and has challenged me to ask once again if I am truly a follower of Jesus or merely a fan. Am I sacrificing everything for the sake of following Him, or am I merely playing at this thing we call Christianity?
Fix my Eyes
During my reading time recently, I came across a prayer that spoke the words I have been feeling deep in my heart: “Lord I pray that I will always keep my eyes on eternity and that the cares of this world will not distract me from my mission of serving You each day.” What a powerful and dangerous prayer! If we were to live our lives in this manner, we would appear to be quite “weird” in the eyes of our culture and would certainly alienate more than a few friends. What if we could cast off the cares of this world and concern ourselves only with the things of God’s Kingdom? If we could honestly pray that God would fix our eyes on Him and then really live that out, I think we would be amazed at what was possible.