There is a level of
Christianity that never reaches farther than a wish. It likes the thought of praying, it is
impressed by sacrificial giving, it believes in loving hurtful people, it knows
it ought to look away when tempted but it just will not make the move. What good is an "amen" if it has
no legs under it? Would we think it
reasonable for a fisherman to bait the hook and never cast the line out into
the water or a student to prepare for an exam and never take the test or for a
bride to stand at the altar with the man she loves and never voice the
vows? Are we Ananias and Sapphira who
wished for the reputation of holiness without the sanctification of the
gift? Our born-again spirit longs to run
to the horizons of holy living but our body wants to just go so far and no
further. Like the child standing at the
edge of the pool who dreads the first chill of the water, we wait and wait to
throw our lives fully into God, afraid of what true holiness will mean. But those who have gone before us...the
Apostle Pauls and the Apostle Peters and the Mary Magdalenes and the Ruths urge
us onward and outward. "Forsake the
love of the world" , they urge.
"Abandon yourself to Christ."
Trust Him with the sorrow of leaving behind your chair and chase the
dream of living within the wild unknown of God's will for you today. Perhaps He has something risky and
preposterous for you to do at this moment but you sit waiting and waiting for
the breeze to blow another way so it will be easier for you. It will never get easier; only more risky and
more preposterous as the hesitation extends beyond the limits set by God. Now cannot be later if you do not want to go
away "sorrowfully" like the
poor young man who was too rich to go beyond the wish of Christianity.
How can you believe if you accept praise from one
another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only
God? John 5:44 NIV
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