If we are not moving forward, then we are not growing in Christ. And unlike anything else in life, when we aren’t moving forward in Christ, when we are at a standstill, we are in fact declining.
Stagnant, complacent, Christianity is scary. It’s a routine of Christianity. A routine we have to get out of. Christianity needs to be a lifestyle instead.
Lifestyles we don’t necessarily think about, it’s what we do. It’s who we are. But a routine is robotic. Routines are planned scheduled things we tend to do because we just feel like we have to. You don’t love it really; you just go through the motions of it.
In my prayer life, I found myself saying the same prayer, the same order, at the same time everyday. And it felt like I was going through the motions of praying. Prayer is a powerful tool, but without a heart and desire to use it as such, it’s nothing more than emotionless words. As John Bunyan said, “In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words, than words without heart.”
It’s no coincidence that when I pray, I feel better. And it’s not a coincidence that when I pray freely and lay all of me on the line, I feel refreshed.
I’ve realized that in any situation, the amount of how much I turn over to God is the deciding factor of how much of myself I free from it all. The forgiveness I seek to give can only come from how much of the situation I give to God. And having a staged prayer life doesn’t help me relinquish all my emotions and thoughts to God. Admitting my frustration or discouragement with others or myself isn’t resolved by complacency with God.
I can’t expect godly behavior from people who don’t know God. And for those who claim to, I can’t always expect them to behave in a godly manner, especially when I don’t. It’s my blessing to release all of this into God’s hands. It’s my job to forgive and be done. Changing events in a person’s life shouldn’t be a reflection upon my forgiveness for them if I’ve truly moved forward in forgiving them.
That is why God revealed this to me: My feelings and emotions towards other people attest more to my relationship with God than they do to their behavior towards me.
The way I respond to your treatment is a greater reflection of where I am in Christ, much more than the way you treat me.
And if you are negative, love me or hate me, I don’t have to be towards you. I can’t change someone’s emotions, but I can not contribute to their negative ones.
Too many “Christians” are portraying behaviors that aren’t Christlike. We cannot pick and choose the sins we want to apply to us. We can’t choose to be okay stunting in growth in Christ, and we can’t choose to be unforgiving, but point out every other sin others commit.
Complacency in your walk with God is a hindrance. Addressing God with anything but an open heart is a hindrance. Reacting ungodly to someone else’s ungodly actions is a hindrance. And no matter how much we claim others’ decisions don’t have anything to do with us, they do. Because anything that hinders someone from doing a work for God affects us all as a part of His Christian family.
We each have to make sure we’re not stuck. And most importantly, that we’re not contributing to someone else’s stickiness.