As we begin the New Year we think and meditate upon our New Years Resolutions and the impact they will make on our lives. As I have been talking with friends and family about the resolutions they made one I heard repeatedly was, "I want to be a better Christian." This took me back to a time in my life not so long ago when this was one commitment I could have made to myself and to my God. I think there comes a time in our lives when we believe we have become the best Christian we can be. We feel we have read all the books, listened to all the sermons, said all the prayers, and spent all the time with God we needed to spend with him. We reach a time when we stop living, breathing, and engulfing ourselves in Christ and start going on auto-pilot. I was sitting in church a few months ago when I was caught off guard by the voice of God booming in my head saying "Aaron - why have you become a one hour a week Christian?" I use to spend hours in prayer promising my Lord on bended knee that I would not become that very person I was turning into. I was suddenly overtaken with a flood of emotions: Regretful that I had slipped away from the feet of my Lord. Angry that I hadn't corrected it earlier. Embarrassed that I was preaching to others about not becoming that type of Christian when I had already. However - while I was being overtaken by all the negative emotions my Father in Heaven pushed through them and laid on my heart a feeling of peace. It was time to correct my mistakes - to go before the God of Forgiveness and lay my burdens at the foot of the cross.
Today - I want to know if you are working to avoid becoming a one hour a week Christian? Are you allowing God to work deeply in and through you or are you living your own life like I was? Are you spending time in Holy Scripture and Prayer daily or are you doing it when it fits into your schedule like I was? Are you listening in the silence to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, as it lays out the next steps for your life or are you endlessly searching in other places like I was? I am here to tell you right now that we are broken Christians seeking to be made whole by Christ. I am here to support you whether you are on the path laid out for you or need help finding it again. I am here, above all, to love you because chances are I have been in the seat you are sitting in now. Will you make the commitment with me, right now, to work away from being a one hour a week Christian? Will you come before your God fully acknowledging your failures? As we work together toward this goal we remember the words of Amos 5:4 - "Seek yes me, and ye shall live..."
No comments:
Post a Comment