I saw a thing here lately talking about the Christian Life, and I got to thinking about it. What actually is The Christian Life? After reading some things and thinking on it, I realize that it is just flat out ridiculous. I mean really, it is pretty far out there. The Christian life is not challenging, its not hard or demanding either…The Christian Life is Impossible! We can try all the different things we want, maybe going to church everytime the doors open, or going to every event we can possibly get to. Maybe we pray a lot or have quiet time regularly. It doesn’t matter how hard we try, the Christian Life as a whole is pretty far fetched. It can be a frustrating, fearful, depressing thing right? The reason I say this life is ridiculous, is that all of us have sin in our life and will continue to have sin in our lives.
When people start realizing that this so called “life” is such a struggle it can do some different things to them. For some, it may mean running away. Maybe from the church, maybe from Christian friends, maybe from your quiet time, or whatever the case may be….but just overall fed up with trying and decide to settle for what they got! So many people do this, a lot of them are in denial and just don’t want to see it this way. (this may be you! Are you at a stand still in your relationship with Christ?) I have personally been there many times. At one point in my life, I was worried about pleasing myself so much its sickening to think about. I was having fun living this way, and knew I didn’t want to confront God (because i knew He would want me to change). I would still claim to be a strong Christian and still do many of the things that are thought to make up "the Christian life", but basically I was just going through the motions and definately not enhancing my relationship with God. I felt guilty, and was embarrassed to come to God. My life was just at a stand still, but it just came to a point where i couldnt handle that, I wanted so much more, and felt convicted because I was doing a horrible job of “living this so-called Christian Life”. It is frustrating ill admit! There is a huge gigantic gap between what we know and what we do. We all know for the most part what the right thing to do is. We know what we should be feeling, saying, doing, wanting, thinking, valuing, and pursuing. When I step back and think about these things, I have to ask myself what the heck am i doing. What am I pursuing? I know that I should pursue the will of God, and his awesome guidance at all times, but do I really do that? Big NO! What should I be valuing? Not earthly relationships that’s for sure, but my faith in our Awesome God right? K you get the point, we are screw-ups and we even know it! So anyways, we all know what is right and how we should conduct our lives according to the Christian Life. But again there is a huge difference in what we know and what we do. The thing that tends to bring us down at times is this frustrating conflict im talking about between what we know and do. All of us have these “wrong” things going on and know what actually is within…..not always what we do is right. Ok so we understand now that we cant be perfect, in fact,, cant even come close to it, eventhough we know how to be. So many people, when realizing this, again just totally quit trying and get discouraged and settle for where they are at (ouch) until they get a cool event or church camp that sparks the flame for a little while, and then lose hope and quit again…..been there done that. These people are usually the ones saying “well at least im not a hipocrit!” Everyone is covered in sin, get over it, Christians make mistakes too!!!!!!
Ok so you MUST understand that you can not live “the Christian life” before I go on. Now here is the cool thing about this….We were never asked to live this “Christian Life.”!!!! God never asked US to live this life at all….people have brought this burden upon themselves and all have found that it doesn’t work. There is one person that can successfully live the Christian Life, and he is so good at it, that they named it after Him. That’s right, Jesus Christ is the only one that has and can live this life. Another cool thing that brightens everything up is this…….WE have the opportunity to have this holy, perfect, Liver of the Christian Life live WITHIN us and live it for us. Cool huh? So whenever I ask God or tell God about my frustrations with not being able to live this “life”, he simply says “good!” We tell God that we cannot live this Life and he simply replies “Good”. You think “what in the world are you talking about Coby….Good that I cant live “The awesome Christian Life that ive been striving for and hearing about for so long????” exactly. It is good that I cant live this life, because Jesus offers to live it with us, through us, and in us! We have to quit consuming ourselves with the ‘do’s and don’ts’ and consume ourselves with the love of God!! He says “Let me do what you can not do” That just makes our life so much easier and stress-free….we don’t have to live with the burden that WE as sinful nasty creatures are incapable of living “the Christian Life”. That’s cool with God, He just asks that we allow His Holy Spirit to live it through us and in us.
Ok here is a little retarded analogy thing im reminded of to help you understand how Jesus lives this life through us. Humans are made up of 3 parts right. 1.) Body 2). Mind and 3) Spirit. The thing I want to talk about is the 3rd part….spirit. Picture the Spirit part as a cup. The Christian’s cup is full of water, or the Holy Spirit….the non-Christian’s cup is obviously empty. The non Christian is constantly trying to fill this emptiness with as much “Me” as possible ok? When the “bumps” of life come along and shakes us up (for example: like the end to a relationship or when someone lies to you , a fight with friends/parents, or whatever the case may be) the Cups tend to tip over a little. What does the Christian have that spills out if they choose to let it? The Holy Spirit exactly!
This is how God enables us to live “the Christian Life”. Not at all through “me” spilling all over the place, that never works, (it usually ends up as nasty as it sounds) but through the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, that lives within us. We must choose to let Christ run our lives and guide us in our decisions. I mean helloooo, He did create the whole stinkin Universe, I think he can handle my life way way better than this skinny white boy could ever dream of! (for some reason we keep thinking differently though and step in and say “ok I got it now God, ill call you when a problem comes up or when I cant handle it, just go about your heavenly duties whatever they may be for now, don’t worry ill let you know when I need you”).
So basically what I am saying, is that the only way for us to live as Christ would want us to live, is not to live at all. God has asked us to die, not try, but die! Die to everything of SELF that is, and live for everything of Christ. Galations 2:20 says “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Simple right?? Ok maybe not, but that is truly the answer to this desire we so desperately long for that is so unreachable when approached any other way than through Christ. Gal 5:20 says “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” What this is saying is that Christ has done an amazing thing for us, he has set us free from trying to live this life on our own. Go about your business letting Christ pour out of you like He so desires….., and yet not be burdened by “a yoke of slavery”……. its not our place to TRY! Ok in closing, I wanna go to vs 13 that gives us a warning almost. It says we were called to be free, like I just explained, BUT do not indulge in sinful nature, rather serve one another in love. Jump to vs. 24 now and see that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have CRUCIFIED SIN with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Be led by the Spirit and only the Spirit…..not the standards of “the Christian Life” and get caught up in all of this trying nonsense. Let God Almighty shine through you in all that you do, big or small, difficult or easy.
Prayer: God, thank you so much for your awesome consistency. Thank you for offering to live our life for us, so that we don’t have to keep failing miserably. Thank you for your unconditional love and the many sacrifices you have made for us. Now I just pray that we can lay ourselves down before you and offer total surrender to your will. I pray that you can spill out of us when the bumps of life come along and just clearly tell us what you want from us. Help us to remember that you restore your mercies on us everyday, and therefor when we do fail you, to not give up, but simply just try harder. We love you, and desire to know you more God. Give us the strength, willingness, and courage to stand up for your awesome name. Guide us and direct us in all that we do. Its only through your awesome son’s name Jesus Christ in which we come to you, Amen. Coby <><
