O.k. Let’s just get honest. God has been convicting me today about the reality of service.
He has been showing me…get this…
When we love people, we will get messy. Christianity is more than sitting in church on Sundays.
Yet, how many of us want a Christianity we can tuck tidily, at the bottom of our to-do list? A religion we can scoop into a few hours of worship, on Sundays?
How many of us want to love without suffering or hardships? To help people without things getting messy or complicated?
And so what do we manage? And how do we un-do this self-created nirvana-like doctrine that somehow seems to pacify us into contentment and complacency?
And why do we hide our believe-systems, or capture our doctrine conveniently into some photo and place it on pinterest for all to see?
Why is it so easy to take our religion and compact and compartmentalize it…as if Jesus was small, not big?
Still, let’s face it…It’s often easier to escape from messy people and hard service than to deal with them? Slam the door or close our ears to the reality that people are addicted; to time, drugs, selfies, their own self-created life-styles?
It’s easier to live in apathy, letting our good works become lip service; our belief in Jesus shrink to be no more than a prayer we said in a church service once, on Sunday?
Yet, isn’t it the same God we minimize the one who…
- Created the Universe in a Word
- Called and redeemed and set free those prisoners
- Filled a boat with fish. Turned a few loaves and bread into a smorgasbord for thousands
- Took the widows, outcast, the prostitutes and gave them everything they needed
Isn’t He the same God who got “messy” for others? For you? For me?
So, why can’t we do more than pat someone on the head and throw money at them?
Weren’t we made to bend low, meet the needs He sets before us? Climb out of our comfy confines and do as He commanded…”Go” and share the gospel, with both in word and deed?
Do we turn away the drug addict who gives us her children, th
e homeless man begging, the broken people he sends us, simply because things might get messy or hard.
Yet, isn’t the real reason we don’t serve, is because other people’s problems can make us feel like, we aren’t enough?
But today friends, I am reminded.
- We don’t have to be enough. He is.
- We don’t have to come up with the plan, the good deed, or even the resources.
- When He calls us, He will equip us.
- We don’t have to be funny enough, or nice enough, smart enough, or even spiritual enough.
Isn’t all He is asking of us is our full surrender to His purposes. That’s it.
I read on Francis Chan’s Facebook lately, “What are you doing right now that requires faith”...
And I was convicted because, often I measure myself by my past, or others, by my resources, or even what I think I
am equipped to do.
But God says, step out in faith. Do things that aren’t just “safe” but those things that are so big, so grande, that Jesus has to come through or it just won’t happen.
Tweet ThisAnd I want that, don’t you? A life lived dangerous and bold, a life lived so grande that people will look at the cards I hold and say, “That HAS to be God in her…clearly that’s not Jen.”
I read another message about faith. On it many said they only hope for, “healing” or “better relationships”…
But what if we believed God for more that earthly changes?
What if we pressed in and not only prayed big prayers, but also got messy and made those faith-visions come true?
- Aren’t we called
to plow forward and not look back? - Aren’t we called to leave mother and father and do the work God has predestined for us?
- Doesn’t faith necessitate us doing more than simply existing, but grabbing hold of a doctrine where Jesus really does things that don’t always make sense to our fragile, simple minds?
And friend, don’t the miracles come when we truly get, the God of the Universe actually wants us to get messy, in order to change the world.
He wants those who will do more than talk about their faith, but who live the gospel with not just words, but deeds.
As I write this, I am thinking of how my world may change completely in just a very short time.
And how I want to be so brave that I care more about His praises, than my own contentment, or living so that I can be “happy”.
Won’t you jump all in to life with me today? The messy? The Miracles? The power found in a God who lives with power and purpose?
He is bigger than just attending church on Sunday. He has a life to give you that is grander than anything we could ever ask, think, or imagine.
Isn’t it time we take the leap, into His purposes?
7 Comments
Hi Jen, I find your posts mostly thoughtful, deep and pointing us back to purpose and worship.
I am encouraged reading this. I was up all night desiring that God grants so requests. My husband and I spoke about it… I am not scared of the messy maybe I am more concerned with not being enough or am I really making an impart…
Thanks for your refreshing words.
Blessings to you
Thank you so very much for your inspiring and encouraging posts and for the linkup! I am trying to get my blog reaching more people to be a blessing, but now also for blessing our family financially. We are on a tight budget now that our oldest daughter is in Bible college for youth ministry and we continue to homeschool our other three children. Please keep our family in your prayers. I am hoping to avoid going back to medical transcription at home as this will deplete my blogging time. Thanks again for this post. It was a boost of encouragement for me today!
Jen, I truly love visiting and linking up with you. Your words always hold such power and truth and I am blessed by my every visit with you. Often what you say, are thing I’ve thought but haven’t said, so I appreciate you sharing your heart and your thoughts with us. GOD bless you, Love! 🙂
Thank you for hosting! I loved your thoughts you shared.
Oh, Yes! I wish it wasn’t messy – this loving – but real loving reaches into the muddy, dirty lives of ourselves and others to lift up! God wants us to save our fallen brothers and sisters, too – not turn our backs on them because they’re not good enough. I read this Robert Frost poem today – and he says it, too (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173525). Trying to love messy along with you!
It does seem so much easier and more tidy to be a Sunday Christian and only dip our toes. Why do we shortchange ourselves that way? We are missing out on the immeasurable and abundant blessings that God is waiting to pour out on us when we submit fully. I am being convicted of this more and more every day. Your post so resonated with me, thanks for sharing it.
Powerful words this week! Thank you for calling us out on our desire for a pretty little Christianity that lets us keep our nails and our clean hands. Jesus bent low when he took on a body and became obedient to death. How much of my concept of holiness is tied to obedience, I wonder?
Blessings to you on this Tuesday!