I think this is the longest break I have taken since I started this venture and somehow, I feel I must apologize for that. I hope that tonight is the beginning of me being back on track.
I took off from work yesterday, but I ended up working harder at home (physically anyway) than I usually do at my place of employment. I cleaned out our "junk room." Threw tons of stuff away. Mom called me about nine o'clock or so and I told her I had taken off for the day. She asked me what I was going to do. When I told her I was cleaning out the junk room, she said "That doesn't sound like a very nice day off to me." My reply was that it would give me a tremendous since of accomplishment. And it did. By the end of the day I was pretty tired; but I was also pretty happy because I had done what I set out to do.
I will admit though, it was pretty difficult. Well - not all of it was that difficult. Some of it was pretty easy to cull through and throw away. Other things though, like old birthday cards and letters and such, were more difficult to part with. I threw some away -- and I kept others. I realized that most of those items were not needful and while some were sentimental -- even then you don't have to keep every single paper your child brings home from kindergarten.
Sometimes living the Christian life is like that. Some worldly things are difficult to let go of. In fact some are harmful to your soul. Other things --activities - hobbies, etc are not wrong in and of themselves -- but can become a problem if you allow them to overpower your desire to serve your God. Just like I didn't need to keep all my child's school papers to be able to cherish and remember him at that age -- perhaps we don't need to see every ball game our favorite team plays to enjoy baseball, basketball or football season. You can still be a fan of your team and serve your Lord. But if they are playing on a Wednesday night or a Sunday night -- you might have a decision to make.
I have a Christian friend whose son played on the high school basketball team. The neighboring county was slated to start the tournament on a Wednesday night. My friend's son made the choice to attend Bible study at the congregation in that town and come to the ballgame from there. God blessed that child in his decision because for some reason (and I can't remember why) the game did not start on time. When he arrived at the gym after Bible study, he found out that he had not missed any of the game. Now it's just me, but I have a feeling that providence had a hand in that somehow. The game started less than five minutes after this young man was able to dress out and show up on the court. Coincidence or just plain good luck? I don't think so.
I worked hard cleaning that room out. There was a lot of "junk" in there. Living the Christian life is hard work sometimes too. There is a lot of junk in this world and we have to fight hard to keep it out of our lives -- to keep from effecting our lives. James says we are to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. And Paul tells us in Romans 12: 1-2 that we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice and not to be conformed to the world. Did it sound to you like Paul meant that would be easy? Living for God is a sacrifice. We become dead to our selves and dead to our life of sin. Some sins are harder to give up than others.
As Christians we say no to our worldly, fleshly desires. That could be anything. It doesn't necessarily mean "sex and drugs" like so many people think. It could be a food addiction. It could be a gossip problem -- or a problem controlling your spending. It could be not seeking revenge over past (or even current) ill treatment. It could simply mean disciplining yourself to get up on time to worship every Sunday morning when before you became a Christian you were used to "sleeping in" because that was the only day of the week you could do so.
There are so many other things -- it could be that you are so used to criticizing others all the time that you haven't yet learned to encourage others and to be kind and considerate. It could be pornography. It could be keeping your tongue and your temper in check. It could be remembering to pray or study as we should --which is a failure to develop a true relatioinship with God.
Yes, it is sometimes difficult to live the Christian life. It is hard work to represent Christ in the work place. It takes self discipline sometimes to go do a favor for someone you love when all you really want to do is sit in your recliner and rock. It takes control to keep from complaining about your work situation or even something at church. We have to learn that some things are just better left unsaid. It takes wisdom and a lot of practice to know when to speak and when not to. If the waiter messes up your order at the restaurant or if the credit card office leaves you on hold too long -- you really do have to be transformed by the renewing of your mind in order to behave as Christ would.
We can all think of so many examples -- so much junk to clean out of our lives. It is so difficult to resist temptation sometimes -- so easy to fall back into a sinful lifestyle. We have to constantly keep cleaning the junk out of our lives. It is hard work to renew your mind -- to teach yourself to think like Christ did - to act like He did. And unlike me taking a day off from my employment, we can never take a day off in fighting for our God.
But in our heart of heats we know it can be done. And as each temptation is conquered, each sin is eliminated, each time we grow and mature in the Lord -- we gain this tremendous sense of accomplishment because we have once again learned that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
God Bless you all. I am so thankful to be back.
Christ above all things,
Robin
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