Before we even get started, please forgive me. I’m feeling frustrated and I needed to get some of this stuff out of my system. I’m just so tired of watching immature Christains sit around in their cloud of self-denial and pretend that everything they say and do is fine when it’s its really time for them to get the chip off their shoulder and do some growing! (I told you I was frustrated!) Please be sure…this is not directed at any one person. It’s just like a disease that I see spreading over people all throughout the Church (not meaning MY church…but “The Church” as a whole). These people walk around with a victim mentality, and they cause strife and division in the body. They are quick to offend and so certain that all of the world’s problems lie in everyone else. They spend their time gossiping about other people and then they mask what they’re doing with, “oh, but I’m praying for them.” Then they “quote” scripture, twisting it to suit their own means. And the worst part is, these people really have themselves convinced they’re okay!
You can’t even carefully, lovingly, gently call them out on their behavior. You can spend hours praying over whether or not to confront them, scouring your heart to ensure it’s the right thing to do, and review your words 1,000 times, but, the spirit of offense in that other person will warp your words and tell them that you’re wrong for saying anything because you’re being too tough. Don’t you know they need compassion? They need support. They need understanding. They need…they need…they need. Ugh! What they WANT is coddled…What they NEED is to wake up and do the hard stuff! They need to consider that they, just possibly, have a spiritual stronghold that’s stunting their growth. And, until they deal with their own issues, their problems are not going to go away. In fact, they’ll compound!
99% of the time we can find God’s will for our specific situation directly in scripture. But since we desire our own will so much, we deceive ourselves and say ‘God’s will is so hard to know, and scripture is so hard to understand.’ Our problem is not understanding God’s word, our problem is obeying it. – Anonymous
I understand that some people are new in their Christain walk and they need the grace to mature as the Holy Spirit leads them. And I understand that even mature Christains struggle with real life problems. We struggle, sometimes, to wait on God. We struggle to forgive when being angry seems much more fair. We struggle with finances. We struggle with unfair bosses. We struggle with wayward kids and troubled marriages. I get all that. But, if we’re really honest, some of our struggles could be done and over with if we’ll take them before the Lord, with humble hearts, and really seek God’s truth and wisdom – not just for the sake of hearing it, but with the will to do whatever He tells us to, no matter how hard. If we allow God to penetrate our hearts and convict us of the sins that we don’t see…if we welcome His involvement, guidance, and grace…we can overcome the things that keeping us in bondage.
I’m so thankful to be in a church that doesn’t just turn out a bunch of mamby-pamby Christains. Our pastors grow and nuture people into strong, spiritually mature leaders. Our leadership preaches life-giving, scriptural meat. You can’t sit in this house for long without being challenged to rise up and become more in Christ, and I thank God for it!
Look, I’m not pretending to be perfect. I’m not claiming to be complete in my spiritual growth. But the thing is, I’m open to Godly counsel. I’m open to taking a real, honest, hard look at myself, and my behavior, and saying, “Okay, God…DO I have a problem here? And, if so, please reveal it to me and help me overcome it!”
Also, I’m not going to get mad at you if you see my faults and bring them to my attention. It may sting for a minute, but, if I know you’re doing it for my own good, that’s okay! Sometimes, I won’t be able to pick up on my own issues because I’m too close to the situation. I NEED accountability partners. I NEED REAL friends who will call me out when my behavior requires it. I NEED people to tell me the hard truth from time to time. By all means, deliver it in love, but don’t sugar coat it. Be real with me and help me become all I was made to be.
If we look carefully within ourselves, we shall find that there are certain limits beyond which we refuse to go in offering ourselves to God. We hover around these reservations, making believe not to see them, for fear of self-reproach. The more we shrink from giving up any such reserved point, the more certain it is that it needs to be given up. If we were not fast bound by it, we should not make so many efforts to persuade ourselves that we are free. – Francois Fenelon
Don’t hold out on God. He already knows what’s in you that needs attention. Denying it’s there will only keep you where you are for a longer period of time. Ask Him to show you what’s really going on in your heart, then ask Him to help you with it. Some of the stuff we have is ugly. Some of it is embarrassing. Some of it is shameful. But lets get it dealt with and stop pretending it’ll all, somehow, just disappear one day.
Christianity is no place for sissies. We’re fighting a war on a daily basis and we need people who are on the real, seeking God daily, purfiying themselves and their thoughts and their habits and replacing guilt for glory. It’s time to grow up. It’s time to toughen up. It’s time to rise above.
I pray strength and encouragement over the body of Christ. I pray that this “me-mentality” will be abolished and that people will begin to see the truth. I pray that we will strive for holiness in our lives so that we may better glorify our Father. I pray that the scales will be removed from our eyes as we quit giving ourselves permission to be blind to the truth. I pray that the level of integrity in the body will skyrocket and that people will begin to fulfill their God-ordained calling because they will no longer be held back by the chains of self-deception. And I pray that this renewed emergence of our souls will leave the devil trembling in our wake. Let the walls of Heaven shake with the reverberation of our shouts of victory!
Whew! Okay. Thanks for letting me get all that out! 🙂 May we all be challenged to “step it up” a notch! 🙂
220 Gal 