Two years ago, I felt
God’s call of total abandonment to Him.
This was a hard call to receive, since there were some things in my life
that I liked, but would take significant blows if I was going to follow this
calling. It was all sin (idolatry), but not all
what we would think of as sin. The one
that sounds the silliest was actually the hardest for me to let go of: video
games.
I may not have admitted it then, but the truth
of it was I did not trust God to satisfy me.
I did not trust Him as my source for pleasure and delight. I followed Him, prayed to Him, spent time
every day reading the Bible, but didn’t quite trust Him to fulfill the needs of
my soul. Life was too difficult,
painful, tedious, boring, and monotonous to not have some sort of temporary
escape. Video games were a way I could
forget about the rest of the world, and for a moment have peace from the anxiety
that would sometimes consume me. For me
it was mostly video games. Many people
find their pleasure in work, drinking, drugs, sexual activity, eating,
thrill-seeking, acquiring nice things, friendships, family, etc. You may not be aware of it, but there’s a few
simple ways to identify the god of your life.
Ask (and be honest with) yourself about where you spend your 1) time, 2)
money, and 3) energy. For me, I spent
every moment of free time playing video games.
Having a family, that didn’t add up to a whole lot of time, but any
chance I had to get by myself would be invested into playing my Xbox 360. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s not anything
inherently wrong with video games, but if I spend 15 minutes of my day reading
God’s word and praying to him, and 2 hours of my day playing Xbox, what is
truly the object of my worship?
“Blessed is the man
who walks not in
the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of
sinners,
nor sits in the
seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of
the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and
night.” (Psalm 1:1-2 ESV)
“Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the
land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and
he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him,
and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness
as the light,
and your justice
as the noonday.
Be still before the LORD and
wait patiently for him;
fret not
yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who
carries out evil devices!” (Psalm 37:3-7 ESV)
Exodus 20:5, 34:14,
Deut 4:24, 5:9, 6:15, 32:21, and Joshua 24:19 are a couple of places where God
is referred to as a “jealous God”.
Sometimes we shy away from certain attributes of God because they don’t
mesh well with our human thinking.
Things like God’s wrath, anger, jealousy, and self-centeredness don’t
sound right to us, because they usually are not right when applied to us. In this pattern of thinking though, we forget
who we’re talking about: God. These attributes are absolutely perfect, holy
and magnificent as they relate to the creator.
In fact, if you removed one from God’s nature, He would cease to be
God. Though these beg discussion, I don’t
want to get too bogged down in them right now and detract from my main point,
but I would enjoy further interaction if you would like to comment below.
The main point is
this: God created us to worship
Him. In the Old Testament, idols were
primarily statues and physical objects that people would bow down and worship. Today, in America, idols are things that take
the place of God in our hearts. Some are
easy to recognize as sin: excessive drinking, illegal drugs, sexual
immorality. Others, however, not only
fly under the radar, but are even sometimes encouraged: hard work, family,
friends, religion. Religion? Yes, religion. If your idea of being a Christian is going to
church on Sundays and obeying a set of rules then you have not been saved by
Jesus Christ and are currently in the same boat as Osama Bin Laden and Adolf Hitler. The only difference is, you still have a
chance to turn from your sin and trust in Jesus Christ for your forgiveness. (if
you have not read my “How Good Am I” post, please read it now, for it is a
necessary backdrop for the point I’m making)
According to the Bible
there are two people groups: the saved
and the unsaved. The people trying to
earn their way into Heaven fall into the unsaved category. If that is insulting to you, check it out in
the Bible. I encourage discussion, but
please use scripture, for that is the final authority. The good news is: God wants us all to be
saved! Christ already did all that was
needed to secure this standing for us, all we have to do is turn from our sin
and trust in Him. Unfortunately
(according to Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14), few will do that, and many will choose
to reject His sacrifice and bear their own penalty for sin (Heb 10:26).
Back to
abandonment. It took a while, but I
followed God’s call, and my life has never been better. The thing is, being abandoned to God is His
call for all Christians (Luke 9:23-27,62).
The “on-fire Christian” is a phenomenon that is known only where
persecution is light or absent. When we
look in Acts (the book about the early church), we don’t find “on-fire
Christians” and “casual Christians”, we find “Christians” and they are all “on-fire”. The hard truth of it is, an “on-fire
Christian” is a Christian, and a “casual Christian” as an unbeliever. According to scripture (such as Ephesians 1),
we learn that when God saves us, we receive His Holy Spirit to live in us. His Holy Spirit transforms our lives (see
Romans 12). In a culture of so much
false teaching, and a lot of false-assurance of salvation that is not found in
scripture, thank God for books like James and 1 John that clearly lay it out
what a believer and unbeliever look like.
Please read those books (each only 5 chapters) to make sure you are in
the faith! God knows better than our
pastors and friends, so let’s check His word to make sure we’ve got it right!
Now let me add that
this doesn’t mean that true believers are perfect in any way, for no one
is, nor does it mean that those closest to God do not go through seasons of difficulty and even drought. But, there is a clear transformation
from the old to the new. The believer is
marked by a longing for holiness, knowledge of God, service, reaching the lost,
and even suffering for His name. That is
very counter to our natural flesh that seeks after pleasure, comfort,
recognition, and self-sufficiency.
Abandonment to our Savior
is our call brothers and sisters! We
were created for nothing less!
There is no deeper
satisfaction than that which comes from communion with the only God.
