On one of my old mobile phones i had a daily reminder that said "Do you still want to follow Jesus?"
I believe each day a Christian must make a choice, at least in how they will choose to behave, whether they will follow Jesus or not.
I think, generally, people abandon their faith in one of two ways.
One - A traumatic event happens and, as a consequence, they stop believing in God or wouldn't follow a God that would allow the set of circumstances that they are going through to transpire.
Or Two - The answer to the question "Do you still want to follow Jesus?" slowly changes from "YES!"... to... "yep"... to... "suppose"... to... "it's what i do"... to... "it's what i should do"... to... "maybe"... to... "not so much"... to... "not any more."
The journey away from God can be one massive step or a bunch of tiny ones. Either way, the result is the same. One just takes longer.
4 comments:
Excellent post! So much of our movement from God is the slow drift that you describe. Almost imperceptible but oh, so deadly. I love the daily reminder packaged in the question, "Do you still want to follow Jesus?" Thank you for sharing it.
Where are you following him to exactly? He hasn't had much of a presence in the last 2000 years. Is he tucked up in heaven with god, or is he god, the one who sent himself down from heaven to enable us humans to atone for our imperfections put there bu god himself when he created us. Why couldn't he have put the firey swod in front of the tree of knowledge before Eve got to it? Was he distracted reading his copy of Gardener's Weekly?
Philip... Great to have you here!
I'll answer the last question first, that's the easiest!
God didn't put a flaming sword in front of the tree because he honoured the choise that was put before Admam and Eve. You couldn't say to someone that they can/cannot do something and then make the task impossible. You snatch away their freedom to choose. A right that God gives to all people. Will they choose to follow Him or not? God won't force you, nor created us as robots that must comply.
As the for following question, it boils down to who is in control of your life. Are you numuber one, or are you willing to put God in charge?
To this end, you would daily decide to follow Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, by living how he has called all people to live, for their own benefit.
Bit by bit, little by little the world can chip away at you and you can stop gathering it all back to you. Before you know it, we are standing in the dark and wondering why we feel so alone. Yet, it is also bit by bit, little by little that we can be open to listening to the small and quiet ways God calls us to him, encouraging, teaching, reaching...
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