Rut
The other day I was talking with a good friend about complacency and the choice to remain in pursuit of Christ, instead of managing a gradual growth. The difference between the two isn't always easy to notice... as gradual growth isn't inherently bad, and there will certainly be times in life when God is really pulling on your heart to dive back into his overwhelming awesomeness instead of dutifully reading the word and learning wisdom.
1 Corinthians 8:1b-3, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God."
And later in Corinthians 13:2, "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
The danger with becoming comfortable with gradual growth is that the heart can become hardened even if our minds become sharper; for love rarely comes from knowledge, but from action.
My friend and I eventually started talking about how this complacency is a lot like a rut- it's easy to end up in it, but when you wake up and realize you're there, you're limbs are so dead from being cramped that you usually need someone else to help you stand up again. Here's some observations on ruts.
They are on both sides of you. Only following the grass path between the two will get you safely where you're going, and there is no grass in the ruts. No soft bed of Christ for the feet, no protection from the sticks and stones of sinners. Despite that, it's easy to become complacent, unaware of the freedoms of clean feet that allow you to go freely where you're supposed to. The rut itself molds to your current shape.... how you feel, yet at the same time it also molds you. The mud will curl around your feet and it feels rather nice if you don't think about what it is....
That muddy sin will keep you from going anywhere but in that rut.
The difference between the pursuit of God and gradual growth, is like jumping for joy in the grass or complacently deceiving yourself that perseverance in the mud is the walk with Christ.
No! Pray for a tractor from Jesus to pull you out, put whatever it is that comes between you and Christ to death, and stop walking in the mud where you can't tell what's okay and what's poop. Get on the grass, where you can run and jump and roll and sing and dance and laugh in freedom! Living in God's love is so much greater than reading his word in the morning and doing the routine. Pursuing Christ is a reality when you find yourself looking forward to something hard that you know will bring you closer to him., or getting lost with delight in his creation, or investing deeply into others' lives with Godly implications, or getting home from work and realizing that to relax you just want to read his word, and the list goes on and on.
Rut. Are you in one? Why remain complacent, content with less than God wants for you?
1 Corinthians 8:1b-3, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God."
And later in Corinthians 13:2, "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
The danger with becoming comfortable with gradual growth is that the heart can become hardened even if our minds become sharper; for love rarely comes from knowledge, but from action.
My friend and I eventually started talking about how this complacency is a lot like a rut- it's easy to end up in it, but when you wake up and realize you're there, you're limbs are so dead from being cramped that you usually need someone else to help you stand up again. Here's some observations on ruts.
They are on both sides of you. Only following the grass path between the two will get you safely where you're going, and there is no grass in the ruts. No soft bed of Christ for the feet, no protection from the sticks and stones of sinners. Despite that, it's easy to become complacent, unaware of the freedoms of clean feet that allow you to go freely where you're supposed to. The rut itself molds to your current shape.... how you feel, yet at the same time it also molds you. The mud will curl around your feet and it feels rather nice if you don't think about what it is....
That muddy sin will keep you from going anywhere but in that rut.
The difference between the pursuit of God and gradual growth, is like jumping for joy in the grass or complacently deceiving yourself that perseverance in the mud is the walk with Christ.
No! Pray for a tractor from Jesus to pull you out, put whatever it is that comes between you and Christ to death, and stop walking in the mud where you can't tell what's okay and what's poop. Get on the grass, where you can run and jump and roll and sing and dance and laugh in freedom! Living in God's love is so much greater than reading his word in the morning and doing the routine. Pursuing Christ is a reality when you find yourself looking forward to something hard that you know will bring you closer to him., or getting lost with delight in his creation, or investing deeply into others' lives with Godly implications, or getting home from work and realizing that to relax you just want to read his word, and the list goes on and on.
Rut. Are you in one? Why remain complacent, content with less than God wants for you?
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