Misplaced Passion

Every action requires effort. Any desired result requires you to put in the work to reach the goal. What’s our goal? Where do we put our effort? Do we have misplaced passion? 

2 Peter 1:5-8

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

After reading this passage, thoughts flood my mind... I question myself, am I applying these things to my life or am I a CONTENT CHRISTIAN, being happy with where I am and not seeking to do or grow more? Do we find contentment in living a 50-50 lifestyle? Living for God one day and ourselves the next? We NEED to live the Luke 14 lifestyle in that we have such a great love for God that nothing, not even our love for family can compare to or even CONTEST our love for Him. We need to put Him before us, His will, His rules, His power before our own. Our lives are to reflect Him and to bring Him the glory, as that is the purpose in life. And lastly from Luke 14, we need to count the cost. The lifestyle of Christianity is not free.. Anyone who tells you that it is is lying to you. It costs your life. The life that is unfulfilling, the life that is so easily broken, the life that is miserable, the life that seems to have it all perfect in everyone’s eyes, but you know that it is so far from that assumption. WHERE DO YOU STAND? Are you willing to give up your faulty plans, your pain and misery, your vain pursuits of popularity, money, and pleasures and find perfect plans for your life, meaning, peace, joy, satisfaction, and so much more? Above all these though, are you willing to experience grace, the giving of something that is not deserved. Grace which is your salvation. Grace that you can never be good enough for but yet can be given to you. Grace that takes your debt, pays it, and then gives you all you could ever want and more. You sinned, you deserved death, yet God humbled Himself to be like us for 30 years, living among us as a man, with the end in mind that He would die a horrible and excruciating death while experiencing the punishment of your sin FOR YOU, that you may experience this grace. Why? Because He LOVES you. You can’t do anything on your own, nothing good comes from your life. You can find no meaning for yourself that lasts, you can find no satisfaction for yourself, you can find no joy when life falls apart, you can never find pure love that has no bounds and no conditions. You can’t even live up to your own standards many times. Yet, regardless of all this, God loves you enough to die for you and give you and I meaning. This is personal. It was for you that He died. It was for me that he died. He offers grace if you give your life. Not giving Him a prayer, only to disregard it after a given amount of time, but a lifestyle that demonstrates one’s BELIEF in God because that is what saves. If you believe in God you will be saved. If you cry to Him to save you, He will. But you have to believe that He will. You have to believe in a way that alters your life. It has to impact EVERY ASPECT of your life.This means that you are never the same person, you may have some of the same interests, but nothing comes close to God for you, you may have a similar personality to before you believed in God, but you will be changed. 

This passage speaks of the effort that we put forth in our daily walks that we may not be ineffective for the Lord. As Christians we are to be striving to grow, even when life is telling us to be happy with the progress we have made and to take it easy. This temptation hits hard. My life has been hit here so many times. It’s not an easy chain to break, but its one that needs to be broken. If it’s not broken then family may I ask what is our goal? Do we seek to be the best disciples, the best followers of God, that we can be for our King and His glory? If so, then that is great and CONTINUE! Don’t stop. May the Lord give you strength to persevere. If not, then why not? I desire that you search within yourself to see where your belief in God is. Not just a belief that He exists, but a belief that is APPLIED and ACTIVE that He holds you in His hand and loves you and gave Himself for you, can you give yourself for Him? And lastly, a question that I must ask myself often to see where my heart lies, if I saw my King today face-to-face, what would He say to me? Would He ask why I did not give more effort to follow Him and why I wasted the potential He gave me, why I wasted the opportunities that he presented to me so that I may experience being His vessel to be used as desired for His glory, to play a role in a story that will last all of eternity? Or will He look at me in the eyes, smile at me, and say, “I’m proud of you”

What will He say to you?

Is your belief in God an active belief that seeps into every aspect of your life? If not, what kind of belief is it?

Blessings