WRITTEN BY MELISSA H. STRAUTMAN, LMT
Lies Against Scripture, Is This Your Love Language?
The companion blog to “Not Falling Away – Part 2” from July 16, 2017
Hebrews 10:1-39 tells us that there are three keys to not falling away from our faith. Even the most stalwart Christian should check-in here from time to time. The first key deals with “drawing near” to God (“Not Falling Away” July 9, 2017) and the four things we must have to draw near to God:
- a true heart – a singular devotion to God
- a full faith – a steadfast knowledge of Christ and His work
- a clean conscience – a constant reality of sin and active repentance
- a committed lifestyle – a devotion to Christlike living and loving
Since I suspect that most of you would say, “Hey, I got that part down”, then we’ll move on to the next key which is, “hold fast” (“Not Falling Away – Part 2“).
Jesus tells the parable (Luke 8:4-8) of the seeds that fall on different soil, which pictures two types of professing Christians that fall away. Of the four soils, only one allows the seeds to survive to planthood; producing fruit. Jesus says those that fail to survive fall to external influences; times of testing, cares of life, and even the blessings of riches and pleasures; understanding that the devil has tainted all earthly things.
We must hold on to our future in Christ and not let anything, good or bad, distract us from our hope that the best is yet to come.
There is a sense that we need to take every though captive and tell ourselves how we feel about it right now (temporal reality), and what we know to be true about the thought/issue in an eternal reality. Then we need to ask ourselves which thought train really matters. Scripture proves that the only answer to this question is the one that keeps us focused on real eternal hope.
When people see you in everyday life and on social media is it clear to them that you are looking for something else (beyond this life) or is it clear to them that you are looking for your best life now? If you are placing your hope in things being better here/now (your health, your job, your spouse, etc), then it’s clear where your hope is. You are telling a watching world how much hope you have in the here and now by how much energy you are putting into this temporal life.
Be the Witness You Were Saved to Be
You can’t serve two masters. God is the designer of the eternal and the devil is the ruler over this time on earth. I beg of you, Christian, to stop posting your ailments and sorrows on social media. Instead tell the world how God blessed you and drew you closer to Him in times of trouble. Be the witness you were saved to be for the advancement of the kingdom and stop telling the world how much you are desiring better in the devil’s realm. That’s not the Christian life.
The Christian life looks like my brother in Christ, Andrew, who had stage four cancer and stood up one Sunday and shared his inexplicable joy that God had given him his disease. Why? He said without his pain and suffering, he’d have never drawn so close to God. He actually said, “Cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me”. That’s what it means to have real hope. You must ‘count it all joy’.
Lies Against Scripture
Those that are not destined for eternal life have only the here and now of this world. I can see them wanting their best life now because it’s all they will ever get to enjoy. Why do you want that? You, Christian, have so much more – or don’t you believe that? 1 Corinthians 15:19 tells us, “If in Christ [born again] we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” This is not a pity for your circumstances. This is a pity for your mind.
“All of this language that says, “this is where it’s at [right now on earth], this is my hope”; it’s language that lies against scripture and robs Christians of real hope. Paul would say elsewhere that if you got all that [your best life now], hope realized is not hope. If you strive after things in this life, you place your hope there and you get them, guess what? You will lose in the process. You’ll lose your hope. You won’t need it anymore. You got everything you wanted.” Pastor Steve Wilson
Do You Want to Lose Your Hope?
If you don’t want to be without hope, then you can’t put your hope and energy in the here and now. Receiving prayers of healing for your ailment can’t be your Love Language. You’re going to have to be forward-looking (heaven) if you’re going to hold fast to God in this life. That means you’re going to have to live a life of real and ready anticipation of something better because this life isn’t going to give you that hope. It wasn’t designed to do that. So, that means you need to know what’s to come. You can’t hold on if you don’t know what God has promised.
Time For a Big Heavenly Chill-Out
Heaven is but one of God’s promises, albeit the ultimate promise. That’s what we must stay focused on. So, when your appendix needs to come out an hour before that big job interview or your kid didn’t get a good enough SAT score to get into your alma mater, you need stop and get perspective. Ask yourself if any of this really matters in the big scheme of God’s future for you? You can reschedule the interview and who knows, just maybe that ambulance ride saved you from a six-car pile-up. Your kid might really want to go to culinary school and tanked that test just to show you where you were crushing his spirit. Take your eyes off the temporal you and onto a more eternal cosmic reality that is not in your control and leave room for God’s mercies to be afoot. It’s those trials and mercies that are preparing you for the hope that will be realized.
Pity for a Christian Is an Oxymoron
God promised that if He began a good work (your salvation), that He would be faithful to finish that work (you in heaven). Nothing is going to destroy you or take you out of the Book of Life if you are truly His. When the trouble comes, focus on that time you’ll be with Jesus where He has prepared a place for you; where no trouble can ever come again. All will be perfect and blissful. Shun all that is on this earth pulling you to desire more and robbing you of contentment. Seek ye first the kingdom of God in heaven, even in your thoughts. Keep your eyes focused on the prize not the self-pity. Pity is for the lost.
If we place our hope anywhere else but in Christ Jesus and His promises, it will rob us, weaken us and doubts will rise. This can cause us to fall away for a time; not experiencing the joy of hope. It’s one thing to be a suffering believer experiencing the full joy of Christ. It’s another to announce a misdirected hope for physical healing or other troubles on Facebook for the whole world to see. I pray that God will stir up in you a focus of hope in Him, His kingdom, His will and that your needs will be met so that you are not distracted from living as more than a conqueror over this life.
Subscribe below so that you won’t miss the next companion blog “The Church of Rock n’ Roll” – – It is based on Hebrews 10’s third key to Not Falling Away from Pastor Steve Wilson.
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