Do you remember as a child willingly, unconditionally loving your parents even when they screwed up? Do you remember trusting them no matter what knowing that they wanted what’s best for you? I realize that some people who read this don’t remember that as their home life was far from this. The only thing they remember was the dysfunction, neglect, and lack of love given freely. But for the majority of us, we knew, despite the circumstances, that we were loved deeply. God loves us deeply as most of our parents do only perfectly. He allows us to explore and learn while trying to guide us the correct way. He let’s us make mistakes and will not ridicule us because of those mistakes. He will let us know the consequences of our actions and do it with an abundance of love.There are people who are blaming jihadists for some recent terror attacks and many times that is the case. There are others who don’t want to speculate even if they have been told who probably did it. I won’t get hard on the 2nd group of people as words are so easily twisted against anyone who is disliked that the disliked person is often disrespected instead of the respect they should be shown.
Necessity of God
The Lack of Consistency
I will freely admit that I am perfectly imperfect or consistently inconsistent. That would be true of any human on this earth currently. We are all imperfect and all inconsistent in our own ways. Some people may be more noticeably imperfect or inconsistent. There are times I may even be one of those noticeable people. It is OK to be imperfect and inconsistent. The point is not to be either of those well. We are called to be Christ like. As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, we become a little more perfect and a little more consistent each day. We will not fully understand perfection and consistency until we are called home to be with Jesus.
So why do I write about my imperfection and inconsistency? Easy, people need to know that they are not the only ones out there who are imperfect and inconsistent. On Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights or any other time we are at church, we tend to put on an everything is just fine face when inside we are falling apart and not even sure if we will be able to get out of bed the next morning. I have my struggles in life. The devil knows where to hit me below the belt and the perfect time to do it. If I give into that temptation, then I am not being Christ like at that moment. I am showing my imperfect, inconsistent side even if no one except me see it as God will always see it. He will gently correct and remind with such a large dose of love that we may not realize what is happening to try to get us on the correct path. God does not pressure us to follow Him. He does not beg nor plead. He invites us and lets us decide. He reminds us of that invitation periodically, keeping the door of communication open if we ever want to talk, but He never pesters us with that invitation.
As I fight the devil, I need to remember that Jesus is right there with me in the fight. He as already won the battle and I need to let Him be in control as I am not the right leader for my life. How should I be ingraining that truth in my life? I need to remember to read the Bible daily and pray. Both help immensely with the reminder as I immerse myself in them. By immersing myself in the practice of Bible reading and prayer, I immerse myself with God. He uses the Bible and prayer time to commune with us so that we can get to know Him. As we get to know Him, we learn about Him and how consistent and perfect He is. We begin to realize that He can be trusted and that He has our best in mind as He cares for us.
Some day I will learn this. Some day I may even be consistent with the Bible reading and prayer. Until that time, I will do my best and be very thankful for a loving, gracious, merciful, and very patient God.
Is God Necessary?
The other day I had this thought about something my pastor stated on a sermon several weeks back. He mentioned that satan does not try to deny God’s existence but tries to get us to believe that God is not necessary. I took that to heart as I know in my own life everyday I have at least 1 moment where I live as if God is not necessary. My thought the other day was, what if God is necessary? How would we live our lives if we truly believed that. I know that if I want to get to heaven, I have definitely not earned it. I screw up way to often as in multiple times per day every day. My good definitely does not outweigh my bad. All of Christianity lies on the necessity of God. If he wasn’t necessary, then why create us, why send Jesus of Nazareth to die on a cross, why provide a free and easier way for us to get to heaven.
If God is necessary, would life begin to have meaning? I know in my life that as much as I live it as if God is not necessary, I find Him very necessary. My life is not perfect and never will be this side of heaven. However, it has meaning and purpose that can only come from God. I have seen Him do so much in my life that can only be attributed to Him and not just a coincident. I am trying to live my life as if God is necessary and will continue to fail everyday. However, I have grown as a better person only because I believe God is necessary and not just some cosmic being who created us and let us to our own devices.