Enjoying the comforts of remaining the same
By: Bill Holland
As God continues to move
upon the earth, He has never
stopped calling His children to
be truth seekers, to speak His
words, and demonstrate His
character. The painful fact is this
does not happen automatically.
There must be a passion to advance into God and this means
the closer we come to Him the
more we will become the best
version of ourselves.
Most people have never really studied religious history and
know very little about why we
believe the way we do. The traditions the masses learn about
God derive from what they have
been told and very few have the
desire to research on their own to
see if the information is correct.
I better stop there before I make
too many waves, but one thing
we can agree on is that personal transformation is one of the
foundational pillars of the Christian faith.
When we watch a baby grow
and progress in their learning,
we celebrate and rejoice in their
development. Likewise, there is
no reason to doubt that God feels
the same way about our spiritual maturity. Changes within our
society and culture are inevitable
and it’s easy to look back and remember how life used to be and
how technology is always coming up with something new. Remember when we used to go to
the movie rental store and used
pay phones? When we look in the
mirror, we can see that our bodies are slowly changing and unfortunately there is nothing we
can do about it. However, there is
an area in our lives where change
will not happen unless we want it
to. We are in control of our spiritual growth.
When we think about God and
the spiritual life, it’s relatively
easy to construct ideas about the
way we believe, and it seems that
everyone has private interpretations. We have been given free
will to make decisions and we
are basically in control of what
we think and do. Very few comprehend what it means to surrender their will unto God. We
can go to church, sing songs, and
even give a few dollars in the offering plate, but no one including
God is going to force us to develop an intimate relationship with
Him. Christians have been given
a new spiritual identity with the
capacity to be convicted which is
the ability to discern what is right
and wrong. However, we can
override our guilty conscience by
ignoring God, and like a lawyer
presenting a case in a courtroom,
we can justify our thoughts and
actions in the light of intentional
self-deception.
There are numerous examples of characters in the Bible
who have rebelled against God
including His favorite people
the Jews, as no human is a robot that He can control. One
of the dangers that every child
of God faces is compromising
with the world’s system which
by the way is the easy path and
very common among the lukewarm crowd. Only those who
have developed an awareness
of God’s presence will ever have
the faith to stand for His truth.
And what is this truth? Well,
truth means a lot of different
things to many people, but the
truth I’m talking about is believing that God is who He says He is.
Remember Pilate said to Jesus,
“what is truth?” At this hour, this
question has never been more
urgent. In the preceding verse,
Jesus said that He was a king
bearing witness to divine truth,
and everyone that understands
this truth can hear His voice.
I’ve mentioned the comfortable path where we just try to
get along with the system without offending anyone, but this
is not the way Jesus lived and
neither is it the way He wants
us to be. The desired path is
a commitment to ignore our
so-called dignified reputation
and declare that obeying Him
is our highest priority. When
we make this choice, let us
be prepared to experience a
similar negative reaction that
He faced. Taking up our cross
and following His demands is
not for the faint of heart because
it places us on the front line of
spiritual warfare. Will we choose
the broad or the narrow way?
Could it be that our New Year’s
resolutions are the result of spiritual conviction? Are we being reminded by the Lord about what
He wants us to change? What
a perfect time to examine our
hearts and dedicate our lives to
God more than ever before.
