That one Thing...

One of the things that I've noticed we Christians tossing around a lot is the "get your life in order" speech.  We sit on our lofty perches as pastors,  leaders, teachers, prophets etc and shout down at people: stop sinning! Do the right thing! Trust God! Let go of that thing, God will give you better! All of these are true. Extremely true and extremely good advise.  But I have come to learn that there are people who are truly, genuinely STRUGGLING to live a holy life,  or to stay away from the ONE thing that the enemy keeps using against them.  

It is easy to say that someone isn't really saved or doesn't really love God and is enjoying their sin.  However, there is a flip side.  Everybody has something; the one thing that they almost cannot resist doing. The enemy has observed us and he knows just what that one thing is.  For someone who isn't vigilant we can get them back to doing that thing without them even realising it.  And it's not that we enjoy our sinful state.  I've seen people bawl and beg and cry out to God for months just struggling to get out of a situation.  For whatever reason, they're stuck. Their love for God is very evident but when you look at their actions you can't help but wonder if this is the truth. Maybe deeper spiritual intervention is necessary to help them break through but their love for God is genuine and say that it isn't so is to fail them.  

Why am I saying all this? It's because we as Christians need to change our approach.  Our job is to reconcile humanity to Christ,  no matter how filthy we deem them to be.  We are never to condone or encourage sin,  but we are not to cast someone aside just because we believe that they are unworthy of our help either.  More souls are lost because we turn up our noses, than because they don't hear the gospel! And who are we to do that? Sinners ourselves! In a lot of ways, we have failed at our jobs. We have ignored people who are drowning but desperately pleading for help.  We've left them alone and let them drown and justified our actions by saying that they deserved to drown and "God doesn't always strive with men".

My admonishment to us all today is to stop turning up our noses and ignoring the drowning man.  

There is more that is required of us all. 

Stay blessed everyone. 

Devotions like this one and others can be found in the Soul Food Series in Kindle or paperback format. 

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