Not Where You Need To Be?
By Jay McGuirk, Minister to Adults (Facebook/Twitter)
One of the really cool parts about this new sermon series is the interactive element that the text-voting gives us. When we were planning out this sermon series, we thought that hearing from the church on some of these issues would give us a good gauge of how people feel about their lives.
A question we asked on Sunday was “would Jesus say your faith is amazing”? When we kicked this question around in our planning meeting, our staff wondered what the results would be. Jeff Clark believed the answer would be quite high, thinking that most folks who attend church are pleased with where they are spiritually. I disagreed completely (as you may have heard Jeff say in the late service) thinking that the number would be pretty low. Let’s just say he owes me lunch.
Does that mean that I think our church is full of pagans? Of course not!
I spend a lot of time with people from our church talking about their relationships with God. What I hear more than anything else from them is a sense that God is not happy with them. If there was a South Mississippi Christian motto, I believe it would be this: I’m just not where I need to be right now.
You wouldn’t believe how often I hear folks use that statement to describe their spiritual life. The implication is that whatever is going on with them spiritually is somehow falling short of where God wants them to be. Does this describe you too?
I get the sense that an overwhelming majority of church-goers experience a recurring guilt about not living up to God’s standards. This leads them to feel paralyzed in their faith because God seems so far away. So, they show up on Sunday, enjoy the worship and the message, promise God they’ll do better this week only to realize that nothing ever changes, feel guilty and start all over. I know, because I’ve been there too.
How can we break this cycle and experience an upgraded faith?
The suggestions I’ll offer you are nothing novel or new. It’s like finding out that the best way to lose weight is proper diet and exercise…we know that, we just don’t do it very well. If you’re looking to upgrade your faith, then do these things:
- If you are a believer, then you have been forgiven of your sins. Live like it! I had this conversation just last week, but part of our problem as Christians is that we don’t live like we believe that God forgives us of our sins. When God forgives us, it is for our past, present and future sins. Romans 5:1 says, “Since we have been made right with God by our faith, we have peace with God.” When we sin, we don’t have to say, “God forgive me,” because He already has! When we understand what it means to be forgiven, then it helps us realize that we’re freed up to serve God, which sin wouldn’t let us do.
- Don’t just confess your sin. Repent from it! We ask for forgiveness that we’ve already been given, and we may even agree with God that we have sinned. Where most believers fail is in true repentance. This is a literal “turning away” from sin and turning towards God and his ways. It’s not enough to confess your sin, you’ve got to run away from it. The great news is that we don’t have the ability to do this ourselves, so God gives it to us. 2 Timothy 2:25 speaks of God “granting” repentance, meaning he helps us turn away from sin and towards him.
- Obey God’s Word. The reason most people feel distant from God is because they simply don’t believe what He says enough to build it into their lives. When we step out on faith in obedience to God, there is an inherent closeness that comes from trusting Him to guide our steps. 2 John 6 says that love is walking in obedience to God’s commands. Amazing faith doesn’t come from taking huge, illogical actions everyday in the hopes that God will bail you out. Amazing faith comes from simple, humble, day-by-day obedience to the little things we know God calls us to in His Word. Then when the big leaps of faith come along, they don’t seem so big at all.
Want to upgrade your life? Start with the spiritual aspect. It’s the part of your life from which everything else flows. Live like you’re forgiven, genuinely confess and repent from sin, and live obediently. You know it, now live it!
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Photo credit Mike.Hanlon
