How many times do we
make an assessment or give a justification for some action of ours or inaction
and frame it as an indisputable fact? Oh
I did not have time to pray much. Really? I was unable to keep my promise. Truly?
I can't afford to tithe. Is that
so? I was prevented from reading my
Bible. Oh? I don't know a soul who is ready to hear the
Gospel. What? I was too busy to participate in
congregational worship. Huh? If God stuck His nose in our business and dug
around a bit, would He make the same determinations as us? We shake our heads at Ananias and Sapphira
and piously declare their wrongfulness but have we not also lied to the Holy
Spirit on occasion? Have we not thrown
up our hands and most honorably asserted our inability to do what God has said
clearly to do? Have we not pretended not
to hear when He knows we have heard? Do
we not pretend to be something we aren't...feebler than we are, more busy than
we are, poorer than we are, less capable than we are? Thank God for His mercy that He has not
struck us down for the very same sins of Ananias and Sapphira! Too often we say we can't when what is really
so is that we won't. We won't have
faith. We won't make the effort. We won't stop loving the world. We won't quit being lazy. We won't turn away from temptation. Narcissism is at its core is far worse than
simple vanity. It is the determination
to keep your eyes fixed upon yourself rather than looking up to the God who
saves you. We don't lie to the Holy
Spirit because we are trying to fool Him; we do it to try to fool ourselves
into justifying our lame spirituality.
The Lord is good enough, strong enough loving enough and resourced
enough to give us great power and ability.
Paul instructs all good Christians who walk by faith. I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me. There is little room in that assertion for
"I couldn't!"
"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living
water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold
water." Jeremiah 2:13 NIV
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