Reluctant Christian

But what think ye? A certain man had two sons: and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. Matthew 21: 28-29

I find that I am all too often a Reluctant Christian. I feel God tugging on my heart about one matter or another. Do I say that I’m only too happy to do whatever is requested of me? Rarely. Usually, more often than not, I give 20 bazillion excuses why this isn't a good time, someone else is better suited to doing whatever it is than I am.

Eventually, I realize that when God calls, I should respond. The sad part is that I do it with a reluctant attitude. I don’t say, “Here I am Lord, ready to do your will.” I usually go kicking and screaming all my excuses before I finally relinquish my worldly human views and I’m open to doing God’s bidding. Unfortunately, by the time I get around to being open, sometimes the opportunity has passed me by.

How can God love such a sinful human being as me? It defies all logic, but He does. In fact, He loves me so much, as sinful as I am, that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die on the cross and rise again to save me from my sins and all my many vices, such as being reluctant, overeating, impatient, etc.

I am very fortunate that when I asked Christ to take care of my food, life, and stress, He didn’t say that He’s too busy, there’s somebody better qualified for the job. He blessed me with this gift and you would think I would be more willing to His will when He asks. Fortunately, He has a very forgiving nature! But what think ye? A certain man had two sons: and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. Matthew 21: 28-29

Since this is an example of the positive influence God has made on my walk with Christ, this may not reflect the whole meaning of the Bible verses.

Can't See the Forest for the Trees Christian

But He turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an offence unto Me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Matthew 16:23

Sometimes, I’m a Can’t See the Forest for the Trees Christan, letting worldly things interfere in doing what God calls me to do. In the verses prior to this, Jesus has just told Peter how he is going to suffer many things, be crucified, and raised again on the third day, but Peter couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

Peter rebuked Jesus and told Him that this shouldn’t happen to Jesus. The thing is, Jesus always sees the Big Picture. He knew that if He didn’t die and rise again, we sinful human beings would have no hope for salvation otherwise.

Sometimes, I get to where I can’t see the forest for the trees, as well. There are times where I hear God’s gentle tugging at my heart, but minimize it and go on to do other things that I determine are much more important.  God always sees the Big Picture, so that thing I may have minimized may have been exactly what God needed me to do to bring about the outcome He desired.

Here’s a very simplistic example: I felt a tugging on my heart to sort through my clothes to donate them, but put it off determining that I should clean my house instead. In this example, someone who may have needed a particular garment I would have donated wouldn’t have it.

Fortunately for me, Jesus doesn’t say, “Debbie wants me to take care of her overeating, but I’ve got much more important things to do first, so I’ll leave it until later.” But He turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an offence unto Me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Matthew 16:23

Since this is an example of the positive influence God has made on my walk with Christ, this may not reflect the whole meaning of the Bible verses.

Blind Christians II

Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Matthew 15:14

This passage comes at the tail end of a very significant time for me, as a blogger. About 6+ months ago, it weighed on my heart that my blog, as well as those by other bloggers, were asking people to Follow them. Around that same time, it was also on my heart that Christian bloggers should be leading others to Follow Christ, not them.

Well, after being prayerful about all these things on my heart, I changed all four of my blogs to tell readers that they shouldn’t follow me, they should Follow Jesus. I explain that that they can subscribe to my posts if they feel that the posts help them have a closer walk with God.

With that said, be mindful of who you are following. There are Christian leaders, often in the public eye, like on TV, the internet, etc. who draw so much attention to themselves and sending money to them that they may actually be leading others astray. This always reminds me of Jim Jones. See the following link to a blog post I’ve previously written on this matter. Misled By Others Who Profess to Be Followers of God We don’t want to be Blind Christians letting others lead us astray. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Matthew 15:14

Since this is an example of the positive influence God has made on my walk with Christ, this may not reflect the whole meaning of the Bible verses.

Backsliding Christian

Go and proclaim these Words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed My Voice, saith the LORD.  Jeremiah 3:12-13

At holiday meals when I overeat, I worry that I’m a Backsliding Christian going back into old eating patterns. Patterns that God had cured me of some 30+ years ago. When I’m prayerful about what I had been doing and turn my food, eating, and stress over to God’s very capable hands, He heals me and takes me back, once again.

Do I do the same with my faith? There are times where I fill my life with worldly things like TV’s, computers, texts, etc. and spend less time focusing on Jesus, my Lord and Savior. When I’m backsliding into worldly ways, what should I do?  

I have found that if I turn to Christ and talk to Him, just like I would a friend, telling Him that I’m sorry that I’ve not paid the attention to Him that He so justly deserves, He forgives me and takes me back, once again.  Go and proclaim these Words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed My Voice, saith the LORD.  Jeremiah 3:12-13

Since this is an example of the positive influence God has made on my walk with Christ, this may not reflect the whole meaning of the Bible verses.

Know It All Christians

Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? Job 38:33-34
God is speaking to Jobs’ friends who seemed to think they knew exactly what God would tell Job and mistakenly attempted to speak on God’s behalf. God wasn’t too keen on these men trying to be know-it-alls, sharing the thoughts of what God would say to Job during his many trials.

Well, some of us, myself included, give the impression that we are “Know-It-All Christians.”  We might convey that we know exactly why God has done or not done something, as if we are privy to God’s plan.  This got me to thinking. I wondered if it sounds to readers that I know exactly why God allowed me to lose the 80+ pounds over thirty years ago and to keep the majority of it off all this time.

First of all, I may make it sound like it happened all of a sudden. Well, it kind of did and it kind of didn’t. How is that for an ambiguous answer? It seems like for six months before God made the miraculous change in my eating, He allowed me to see just how much negative power food had in my life. It controlled how I felt about myself. It affected my relationship with my family, my friends, and with God. When I was turning to food instead of turning to God with all my stress, etc., I was cranky with my family. I shied away friends, and was reluctant to go to church where people could see me in my BIG clothes.

It’s like God had me see these things in slow motion, so that I could note how food, the thought of food, and Satan were controlling my life. I saw my reaction when my daughter wanted green apples to share with her friends and I got upset with her, because those were MY special apples, although I said I needed them for the family. I saw when I ate three egg sandwiches, which I’m not extremely fond of, and the third one fell on the floor, mayo side down and how I put it back together and gobbled it up, amazed that I would do something like that. These are just a few of the examples that I’ve shared in much earlier posts. The thing God was showing me was that Satan had a stronghold on me through my food. I was turning to food when stressed, happy, etc. rather than turning to God, which means that food had become a false god to me.

Then one day, I gave up. I had tried my “good diet” and gained weight on it when I hadn’t varied far from the diet plan. I sat down one day and told God that I give up and that if He ever wanted me to be thin, He’d have to do it, because I couldn’t. The interesting thing to me was that I really wasn’t expecting God to do anything for me. I was just giving up. I think that’s the first time I had ever totally given up the power of my overeating and turned it over into God’s very capable hands. It started that same day that God took the desire to eat large amounts of food away from me. I no longer craved sweets and carbs. It is a miracle and I’m very blessed.

Since this is an example of the positive influence God has made on my walk with Christ, this may not reflect the whole meaning of the Bible verses.

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