Sometimes it is difficult to be a Christian. I want to hang onto the world, worldliness, and at the same time, I want the benefits of being one of God’s children.
I like to listen to secular music. I have listened to it all my life, and I enjoy punk, hard rock, and electronica. I want to date “like a normal person.” I spent 14 years (from my first boyfriend at age 13 to the time I became a Christian at age 27) dating without knowing how to date in a Godly way or have healthy relationships, and it is difficult to change old patterns. I want to watch mainstream movies or read pulp fiction because these things are entertaining.
However, trying to hold on to worldliness is ultimately to my detriment. Secular music contributes to my use of bad language and a false understanding of love. Trying to hang onto old ways of dating does not glorify God, and it only causes stress and distance from God. What seems glamorous or appealing proves empty and unsettling. Watching mainstream movies promotes dissatisfaction and disappointment. Relationships in mainstream media are portrayed as if another person can be your everything and can totally fulfill you, but this is not reality.
In our society, we are bombarded with fairy tales. We see men who desire and idolize women; they are the rescuers, saving us from our “real life” that is full of hassles. We see women who are airbrushed beyond what is realistic. We see advertisements and listen to songs that promote sexual and sensual temptation. And we want to hang onto these fairy tales, because they are alluring. Movies and advertisements promise a happy ending as a result of being lustful (“sex equals love”) and greedy (“buying stuff equals happiness”).
God says through Paul in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” When we submit our wills to the control of the Holy Spirit, we gain these “fruits,” or benefits. Often, I want to follow my own will and live a worldly life, yet I want to reap the benefits of the Spirit anyway. But in reality, Godliness and obedience, tough as it may seem at times, increase peace and joy.
Elisabeth Elliot, in “The Path of Loneliness,” writes, “Sometimes we prefer to struggle even when we are quite clear about what we ought to do. Struggling in such a case only postpones obedience. . . Sooner or later someone is bound to come along and say just what we hoped to hear, ‘Go with your feelings.’ This may seem the easiest way until we try it, whereupon we find that feelings are always canceling each other out – which ones shall we go with?. . . [but] those who go with feelings will never inherit the kingdom of God.”
I can always find someone who will tell me what I want to hear, who will say what I need to give me license to do what I want to do outside of God’s will. Several people have told me lately, “Follow your heart.” That could mean that I choose to follow God, because Jesus in my heart enables me to be obedient and to love others. Or it could mean that I follow my sinful heart, my rebellious desires.
The deep desire of my heart is to follow God and to be obedient. While this path does not make life easier, it makes life simpler.
Yet it is easy to get distracted, to get caught up in the moment, to be influenced by worldliness and to falsely believe that I want worldly things.
Elliot writes of a woman who is joyful in her singleness. Elliot asks the woman if she is lonely, and the woman replies, “Oh no. You see, I have a sense of expectancy every day. What does the Lord want to do with me today? I have no agenda of my own.”
What must it be like to wake up every morning with a wholehearted acceptance of God’s agenda, giving Him my day, my heart, my obedience? I so desire to operate at this level. It must come with such a sense of freedom and love and peace. So why would I keep holding onto worldliness and rebellion?
Well, if I were perfectly obedient, I would not need Christ. Paul writes in Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” I am a work in progress, and sanctification will continue until the day I die. God does not expect me to be perfect right now.
I like to listen to secular music. I have listened to it all my life, and I enjoy punk, hard rock, and electronica. I want to date “like a normal person.” I spent 14 years (from my first boyfriend at age 13 to the time I became a Christian at age 27) dating without knowing how to date in a Godly way or have healthy relationships, and it is difficult to change old patterns. I want to watch mainstream movies or read pulp fiction because these things are entertaining.
However, trying to hold on to worldliness is ultimately to my detriment. Secular music contributes to my use of bad language and a false understanding of love. Trying to hang onto old ways of dating does not glorify God, and it only causes stress and distance from God. What seems glamorous or appealing proves empty and unsettling. Watching mainstream movies promotes dissatisfaction and disappointment. Relationships in mainstream media are portrayed as if another person can be your everything and can totally fulfill you, but this is not reality.
In our society, we are bombarded with fairy tales. We see men who desire and idolize women; they are the rescuers, saving us from our “real life” that is full of hassles. We see women who are airbrushed beyond what is realistic. We see advertisements and listen to songs that promote sexual and sensual temptation. And we want to hang onto these fairy tales, because they are alluring. Movies and advertisements promise a happy ending as a result of being lustful (“sex equals love”) and greedy (“buying stuff equals happiness”).
God says through Paul in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” When we submit our wills to the control of the Holy Spirit, we gain these “fruits,” or benefits. Often, I want to follow my own will and live a worldly life, yet I want to reap the benefits of the Spirit anyway. But in reality, Godliness and obedience, tough as it may seem at times, increase peace and joy.
Elisabeth Elliot, in “The Path of Loneliness,” writes, “Sometimes we prefer to struggle even when we are quite clear about what we ought to do. Struggling in such a case only postpones obedience. . . Sooner or later someone is bound to come along and say just what we hoped to hear, ‘Go with your feelings.’ This may seem the easiest way until we try it, whereupon we find that feelings are always canceling each other out – which ones shall we go with?. . . [but] those who go with feelings will never inherit the kingdom of God.”
I can always find someone who will tell me what I want to hear, who will say what I need to give me license to do what I want to do outside of God’s will. Several people have told me lately, “Follow your heart.” That could mean that I choose to follow God, because Jesus in my heart enables me to be obedient and to love others. Or it could mean that I follow my sinful heart, my rebellious desires.
The deep desire of my heart is to follow God and to be obedient. While this path does not make life easier, it makes life simpler.
Yet it is easy to get distracted, to get caught up in the moment, to be influenced by worldliness and to falsely believe that I want worldly things.
Elliot writes of a woman who is joyful in her singleness. Elliot asks the woman if she is lonely, and the woman replies, “Oh no. You see, I have a sense of expectancy every day. What does the Lord want to do with me today? I have no agenda of my own.”
What must it be like to wake up every morning with a wholehearted acceptance of God’s agenda, giving Him my day, my heart, my obedience? I so desire to operate at this level. It must come with such a sense of freedom and love and peace. So why would I keep holding onto worldliness and rebellion?
Well, if I were perfectly obedient, I would not need Christ. Paul writes in Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” I am a work in progress, and sanctification will continue until the day I die. God does not expect me to be perfect right now.
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