Good Gifts Gone Bad

Good Gifts Gone Bad

by Meredith Mills

@DazzledByTheSon

Sometimes you’ve got to give yourself a time out.

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For several months, I’ve been very intentional about writing regularly, trying to post here on a weekly basis. But last week, I chose not to write. At all.

God told me not to.

I had lots of work to do – A book proposal waiting to be revised, a book in process, a weekly blog post, a monthly contribution to Just18Summers and another article to complete by the end of the month.

Clearly, I didn’t have time to take the week off.

But God showed me that writing had become an idol.

An Idol.

It’s a rather church-y word, one that’s lost much of its meaning to modern American Christians. We read about idols throughout the Bible, but they can seem like distant relics of the past or an unfamiliar element of cultures somewhere else in the world.

Maybe we need to rethink the word.

Maybe addiction is more relevant to our modern minds.

Unlike statues of gold, addictions can be much harder to recognize, but they’re just as insidious.

Some addictions are big and ugly and obvious. But most of them aren’t. Most start as good gifts, designed by God for our enjoyment and use.

But they become addictions when we find our identity in them.

When we panic at the thought of losing them – even temporarily.

When we can’t stop thinking about them.

When we look for comfort, peace or healing in them.

When they drive and control us.

That’s what happened with my writing. I had taken it up as a hobby several years ago. It was a refreshing way to process my thoughts and emotions and a means of sharing with others what God is doing in my life.

But I’ve grown to love the feeling of completing a piece and meeting a deadline. I get excited when I hear how God ministered to someone through my words. I enjoy reading comments and feedback.

Those good things, however, took root in my heart and seeped into my identity. They began driving and controlling me like a task-master.

What started as a good gift became an addiction, an idol.

When God showed me this, I asked Him what to do about it. Not all idols can, or even should, be completely discarded. I’ve wrestled with a food addiction for much of my life, but I certainly can’t quit eating.

As I prayed, Jesus reminded me of this verse: “…Take every thought captive to obey Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

Just as my thoughts need to obey Jesus, the gifts I’ve received need to be under His control as well.

My writing needs to obey Jesus – the time I spend on it, the projects I undertake, the very words I say.

My eating habits should obey Jesus – what I eat, when I eat, how much I eat.

My parenting ought to obey Jesus – how I speak to my kids, the way I train and discipline them, the activities we chose to do as a family.

My role as a wife needs to obey Jesus – how I talk to and about my husband, how I respond to him, the priority I give our relationship.

My people-pleasing personality should obey Jesus, so that His pleasure is my heart’s desire and satisfaction.

My use of time needs to obey Jesus.

Absolutely every area of my life needs to obey Jesus.

Because this is what following Him is all about – my whole self living in full surrender to the God who invites me to find rest in Him. Rest from the idols that drive me, rest from the law that condemns me, rest in Christ’s work and rest in the nearness of God.

While idols and addictions consume those who cling to them, Jesus offers the abundant life for which our souls were created. (See John 10:10.)

How about you? Are there any idols lurking in the shadows of your soul? Any addictions strangling your abundant life?

God loves us too much to let us continue worshiping at the feet of things that will destroy us. Will you bring your idols to Him and let Him show you how to bring them under His control? no idols

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments! Please respond below.

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Pondering Perfection

Pondering Perfection

“Please don’t let me mess up. Help me not to make a mistake.”

microphone-2479265_1280I stood in front of our church congregation, filling in as a member of the worship team. I would be leading out on the next song. My stomach was in knots as I thought through all that could possibly go wrong, things that have gone wrong in the past.

I could forget the words. My voice could crack. I could miss that high note.

Listening to the song’s intro (my heart obviously not worshiping), I realized something quite convicting – I’m quick to admit I’m not perfect. I talk about transparency and the importance of being real, of extending grace in our weaknesses and laughing at our embarrassing moments.

But I don’t like people to see me make mistakes. I want to control which imperfections they observe.

It’s one thing to talk about our mistakes and embarrassments, even our sins, in the past tense. It’s another matter to mess up when people are watching.

For most of my life, I’ve aimed at perfection. It seems a worthy pursuit. Jesus Himself said, “You are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

When the Bible uses this word perfect, however, it has the connotation of completeness and maturity.

This term “can be used in a relative or absolute sense…God’s perfection is absolute; man’s is relative reaching the goal set for Him by God with each individual different according to one’s God-given ability.” – Lexical Aids to the New Testament, Key Word Study Bible

God is perfect. He’s sinless and holy. He needs and lacks nothing.

bean-1512433_1280We, His children, on the other hand, are in the process of becoming perfect and mature. We’ve been declared righteous and our sins have been washed away. Yet the Holy Spirit is about the lifelong work of forming Christ in us – and He’s not in a hurry.

True perfection, like all of Christianity, revolves around Jesus, not our own efforts to keep a good image or avoid mistakes. Jesus is our example, as well as our Source of transformation. He uses even our weaknesses to mature us and make us like Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.)

So today, instead of focusing on myself and the image I want to maintain, I choose to rejoice in the work God is doing in my heart, my life and my home.

ChristianPerfectionHow about you? How is Jesus perfecting you these days?

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Eternal Life Now

Like dry, parched ground – that’s how my heart has felt lately.

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It’s been a while since I blogged. The reason? I haven’t had much to say. I haven’t known what to write about.

Last weekend, I went to a Beth Moore conference and that’s when I realized how very parched my soul has been. I have been catching snippets of time with God, but honestly, I’ve been lazy in my pursuit of Him. During the conference, I was reminded of the magnetism of Jesus. He is relentlessly pursuing my heart, even when I’m not pursuing Him.

Beth talked about the concept of gravity, which she defined as “a force of attraction between two objects; that which pulls an object of lesser mass toward an object of greater mass.” She gave the following acronym to illustrate what she called “divine gravity” – God Revealing A Vast Intensity Toward You.

God, the far greater “mass,” is constantly pulling this lesser “mass” (me) toward Himself. How awesome is that? He doesn’t wait for me to initiate. He doesn’t demand that I meet Him halfway. His heart of vastly intense love never stops loving, never stops drawing. I am so grateful.

When I lived in a performance mindset, I was pretty disciplined in reading Scripture and in prayer. But I often did it because it was the right thing, the spiritual thing, to do.  As God is setting me free from performance-based living, I’ve wrestled with the why behind what I am called to do. If all things are lawful for me in Christ (1 Cor 6:12, 10:23), if I am fully accepted in Him regardless of what I do (Rom 8:1), then what motivates me to seek and obey God? What should compel me to “discipline myself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim 4:7)? I’d like to take the next few blog posts to share what I’m learning on this subject.

We often think of eternal life as something we get when we die. But in reality, eternal life begins the moment we are born again through faith in Jesus. (“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” 1 Jn 5:11. And “…I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” Gal 2:19-20.)

When we come to faith in Christ, we are given more than “fire insurance,” more than a key to heaven, more than a future inheritance. We are adopted into a new family, with a Father who longs to relate to us.

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To view salvation as simply a future event would be like a street child adopted by the richest man in town, who then continues to live on the streets, content with the promise of an inheritance. Or like a prostitute wooed, loved and wed, only to continue in her former occupation, knowing her husband’s wealth will one day be hers. How short-sighted, how vastly inferior, would such a life be!

Such are our lives if we do not walk in relationship with the God who has saved us. He has revealed Himself in His Word. He has deposited His Spirit into our hearts. He has invited us to His throne room. He holds out the offer of eternal, abundant life here and now. How much we miss if we do not throw ourselves into walking with Him!

I do not have to read my Bible or pray or abide in Him to keep being His child or make Him like me. But I do have to read the Word and pray and abide in Him to experience the life that He’s given me. His Word and His presence are the Source of spiritual life and freedom. As a plant needs sun, water and food to bear fruit, so I need the Light of the World, the Giver of living water, and the Bread of life to bear spiritual fruit. I cannot produce it on my own.

If you are God’s child, you were adopted into His family for the purpose of a relationship with Him. (If you’d like to know more about becoming His child, click here.) You are vastly loved, constantly pursued, and infinitely supplied by the God who gave His life to make you His own. His Word is not a book of rules, but your very life. In His presence is fullness of joy.

So let us press on to know Him more. Let us throw off the sin that masquerades as our life. Let us persevere in this walk of faith. How? By fixing our hearts’ eyes on Jesus – the Source, Sustainer and Sanctifier of our faith (Heb 12:1-2).

If Jesus is the Source of our daily eternal life, how does that affect you in the moment-by-moment dailyness of life?