by Chad Koons
God knows your heart, right? After all, isn’t that what you gave Him?
Quick story. We used to evangelize bars and night clubs. You should try it; it’s entertaining to say the least! There were all sorts of people coming out of those places. We would see it all: the partiers, drunks, cheaters, druggies, people looking for sex, people blindly in love with the world, both gay and straight, from every race and background, even the awkward people who knew that they shouldn’t have been there. It’s fair to say that a lot of them were not loving God. We would ask them about their relationship with Jesus, and their answers were shocking. Want to guess what most of them said?
“I’m already a Christian.”
Really?! So that’s what a Christian looks like! We would ask them to explain what makes them a Christian. Most people would give us some variation of the following answer: “Because I have Jesus in my heart.”
In your heart? This has become a very serious problem within our society, that we can think ourselves one way yet live something completely different.
Having Jesus in your heart used to mean that you’ve traded your heart for God’s own heart, and that your lifestyle would reflect His. Not anymore, however. Now, it has now become a weak slogan and a grand illusion.
Here’s the Illusion
When a person lives a lifestyle of sin and separation from God yet thinks that they’re okay because they have “Jesus in their heart,” it is a way of saying, “Look at my heart and not at my lifestyle.” Just acknowledge Jesus in your heart and you’re safe, God will now overlook your sinful lifestyle so live however you want. They think that somehow the heart and the lifestyle can be disconnected from one another. After all, God understands, right? Come on, we all sin, don’t we?! Have you ever heard someone say, “Me and God? We’re fine! I am sinner but He knows that I love Him!”
Yet there remains a huge difference between a sincere lover of God making a mistake and a person living a lifestyle of intentional sin.
Here’s the Answer
This may sound harsh, but your heart is not enough. It never has been enough. Not as long as you think that your heart and your lifestyle are two separate things, offering one without the other.
Jesus doesn’t want your heart only; He wants your very LIFE. Every action, every attitude, every thought, every breath, every desire, every ambition, every waking moment, and every single shred of who you are and hope to be. It’s that living sacrifice that He is after. Will you be a living sacrifice, consecrated to God alone?
Give it up and give yourself over. Freedom is waiting, my friend. God has need of you, and it’s not too late! He will transform your life as you surrender to Him. If you gave Jesus your heart, be sure that He gets the rest of you, too.
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1 comments:
Your post is thought-provoking and has made me look back to my pre-Christ days. I met a lot of people who called themselves "Christians"who grew up in church, who did hurtful things and then showed up on Sundays for absolution. Then repeat. Exposure to that hypocrisy for decades was the biggest obstacle I faced in converting. After all, why on earth would I CHOOSE to be like that?
Your bog beckons the question: What, if any, is the difference between a Christian and a Believer? Perhaps that is the point of clarification needed for contemplation. Is there a difference? Or perhaps they are the same. From my perspective, the title "Christian" is all-encompassing, one-size-fits-all in today's world. It means different things to different people, depending on how someone was raised. To some, being Christian means having a daily walk with Christ and giving Him their lives. To others, it is merely a general, broad recognition of faith that is used only for forms and applications, without regard to spiritual premise. The name "Christian" is becoming a catch-all phrase like "spiritual but not religious."
In our permissive society that is becoming more welcoming of everyone's definitions of themselves, it is a powerful time to reflect on defining ourselves clearly, with the happy and difficult ramifications that go along with the label "Christian."
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