NOT ME, BUT GOD!

It’s been a strange season. I am a creature of habit, so the recent changes have left me feeling unsettled at times, not knowing my place or where I fit. It’s in the season of uncertainty that the temptation to be a lone wolf creeps in. The desire to govern yourself and trick yourself into believing that it’s you and God against the world, that you can trust yourself, because trusting others may have left you disheartened and hurt. That place is dangerous! That place can lead you back to the grave, the same grave that Jesus called you out of. It’s crazy how our flesh can talk us back into a life that is far from God. Our sin is like muscle memory. It can convert back to what it remembers. Although I have not revereted back to my past life, I can see how it can be so easy, and that to me is scary!

I am grateful to God that He has found me a new church home. I spent some time trying not to tie myself down so soon to a new church, but then realised I was a one church kind of girl, and church hopping wasn’t for me. The title of this post comes curtesy of my new pastor and a message he preached a couple of weeks ago. It got me thinking about how we can walk so close to God and then live a life like we never knew him. I didn’t believe that could be possible, at least not for me. But I have learned how circumstances can draw you to a place that you never thought was possible. It’s then that I am reminded that every day we wake up, we have to choose to follow Christ! We decide to die to ourselves and pick up our cross daily. Sometimes, I think we can take for granted that we are secure in God because we once professed Jesus Christ as our Lord and saviour. We see it often when we look to people who are popular, who in one sentence say they are Christian, but when you look at their life, it is not a reflection of Christ who died for us. Unfortunately, these are the people that the world looks to as an example of Christianity.

The bible speaks about turning back to our old ways and how bad of a state it leaves us in. The saying of when you know better you do better seems to be null and void. This is why when Jesus saves you, He doesn’t save you and leave you to fend for yourself in the wilderness. That would be cruel, and we serve a kind God. Instead, He saves you and adds you to the body, which He is the head. He adopts you into His family of believers and gives you new life and purpose. This is why being a part of the body of Christ (the church) is so important. EPHESIANS 1:5 “GOD DECIDED IN ADVANCE TO ADOPT US INTO HIS OWN FAMILY BY BRINGING US TO HIMSELF THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. THAT IS WHAT HE WANTED TO DO, AND IT GAVE HIM GREAT PLEASURE.” It’s the family of believers through the Holy Spirit who show us when we are off the righteous path. When we take ourselves away from the body of Christ and decide to trust ourselves, that’s when the serpent slithers close, whispering false truths in our ear. Then we start to make excuses for why something that we once believed was wrong, now starts to seem right.

2 PETER 2:20 “AND WHEN PEOPLE ESCAPE FROM THE WICKEDNESS OF THE WORLD BY KNOWING OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST AND THEN GET TANGLED UP AND ENSLAVED BY SIN AGAIN, THEY ARE WORSE OFF THAN BEFORE.” It’s a slippery slope that any one of us can find ourselves on. I have seen people make excuses for unholy living when God requires us to be holy because He is holy. They stop listening to Godly advice because it’s not what their flesh wants. We don’t even realise that it’s not the Spirit that we are living by. We don’t even realise when the flesh takes over. That’s what happens when you think you can live this life outside of the body of believers. Being doers of the word is what sets us apart from the world. It’s the foundation we build our lives upon that sets us up for success. My pastor reminded me that if you are not building your life on the word of God, given to us by the prophets and the apostles with Christ as the cornerstone, then all else is sinking sand.

MATTHEW 7:24 “ANYONE WHO LISTENS TO MY TEACHINGS AND FOLLOWS IT IS WISE, LIKE A PERSON WHO BUILDS A HOUSE ON SOLID ROCK.”

Life will bring you through different seasons. Some seasons will be still and filled with peace, while others will feel turbulent and dark. It’s in the stormy seasons we realise whether we built our house on the rock or the sand. This season, for me, has been a test. If I had built my foundation on sand, I know for a fact that I would have probably not committed myself to church again. I know that I would have felt like I would have been better off without it. I would have created my own version of Jesus, who is so filled with love that I wouldn’t have to set myself apart, and live a holy and righteous life, because God is so forgiving and takes me as I am. I would have easily forgotten that God’s love language is obedience, and made my relationship about how God serves me, and how I don’t have to do anything but just believe in God and acknowledge Jesus. And because of this false Jesus I would have created in my head, I would have found myself back in the grave, enslaved once again by sin. This, my friends, is one of many schemes of the enemy, who has many professing Christians deceived. 1 CORINTHIANS 3:18 “STOP DECEIVING YOURSELVES. IF YOU THINK YOU ARE WISE BY THIS WORLD’S STANDARDS, YOU NEED TO BECOME A FOOL TO BE TRULY WISE.”

When you start to believe that you know best and trust in yourself, it brings disaster. That is what happens when you take Jesus off the throne of your life and put yourself up there instead. Submission is a dirty word in culture today, but submission is necessary in our walk with Christ. Being a part of a church does mean you are submitting to church authority. If you live life picking and choosing what you are obedient to when it comes to your walk with Christ, then being a part of a church will never seem appealing, and if you have church hurt it is worse! But even the early churchs of the New Testament had to submit to the authority of the apostles. God placed them in their positons just as He has placed the leaders of today. Today, he tells us to test the spirits and warns us of the many false prophets and teachers that have been sent out to deceive us. Today is when we need our descernment more than ever before!

Going back to my original thoughts that brought about this post, I was reminded of the story of Lazarus. Jesus loved Lazarus, but when news reached Him that His friend was sick, Jesus decided not to go and see him immediately, resulting in the death of Lazarus. When Jesus arrived at the town to see Lazarus, Lazarus had been dead in the tomb for four days. There was no denying at that point that Lazarus was dead, for his body had started to decompose. It would only take a miracle from God to change his circumstance. So when Jesus visited the tomb of Lazarus and called him out, He did what only God could have made possible. And when Lazarus walked out of his tomb, once a decomposing body, now living and breathing, there was no denying the power and glory of God and the authority of Jesus! Lazarus couldn’t ressurect himself. It was only the power of God who could take him out of the grave. I thought about how we can find ourselves like Lazarus. We can be dead in our transgressions, our sin the stench of rotting flesh to God. We can be dead for so long that it would seem impossible that our circumstances could change. People around us may give up hope and think it is impossible for us to change. God reminded me that nothing is impossible for Him! If we find ourselves back in the grave, although it may be hard, nothing is too hard for God, and He already paid the price for us with His blood.

I thought about how easy it could be to fall back into old habits, I thought about how weak I am without God. How I have no power without His power. It’s not by my own strength that I walk this path, but by His strength! Not me, but God! It’s easy to become puffed up and put yourself at the centre. So many have fallen because of pride. I was reminded that humility was the key to keeping Jesus at the centre of your heart. Because when you realise that everything else is sinking sand without Him, that’s when He sits on the throne of your life, and nothing, I mean nothing, can separate you from His love!