Many people believe in hard work and good luck, but not in God’s wisdom and supernatural intervention. Maybe you know someone like this?
Many people don’t get serious about who God is; they generally ignore what He says. Their philosophy of life is “get by.”
Jesus got to the crux of the matter when He told His disciples, “. . .You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37).
What does God really expect of me?
Nothing less than complete obedience will do. If we don’t obey His requirements for salvation we will be lost. If we don’t obey His requirements for living we are wasting our life, and we are being a stumbling block to others who need to know Him as Lord. Getting by is never good enough.
What’s holding us back?
- Tradition, culture
- Apathy
- Misunderstandings in the past
- Beliefs that take the place of worshipping only the God of the Bible
- Rebellion against God — what we think He caused to happen, what we don’t like about the Bible, what we don’t like about His plan of salvation and His way of life for us.
- We think we’re doing OK and don’t want to appear to be fanatic.
- Peer pressure from people around us
- We may have convinced ourselves that we are Christians because we used to go to Sunday School when we were kids.
- (Can you add to this list?) . . .
Does God allow people to make up their own rules?
Will He let us get by? NO.
Why is God so hard to please?
God tells us to do the impossible so we will see that we can’t do it. We must see our need of Him for everything. When we discover our true spiritual condition, then there’s hope for us.
What if we’ve been unbelieving? What if we’ve been disobedient?
God is holy and almighty. Our first response must be to confess our failure. We then invite Jesus to be Savior and Lord of our life. Then we humbly ask for the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
When we are honestly sorry and repent He will forgive us, teach us, remind us, and empower us. We are not earning our forgiveness, our salvation. God already loves us, but we are to respond to Him.
For too long we thought we could get by.
Now is the time to make a new beginning. The idea of getting by has got to go. + + +
By Elaine Hardt ©2000
