faith journey

…yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 
Habakkuk 3:18

According to Psychology Today we make an average of 35,000 decisions each day. That’s about 2,000 decisions per waking hour. I remember when I was working as a public relations and marketing executive at a mid-sized company. At the end of each day I felt exhausted. I couldn’t even think about what to make for dinner. I realized at some point I had decision-making fatigue.

So many of our decisions are ones we don’t really think much about – if we are going to get up and go to work, if we are going to brush our teeth before leaving the house, if we are going to get dressed. We just sort of do them out of habit or necessity.

But what about our faith lives? How many of us have, along our journey, made the decision to fade away from our faith? Not realizing we’ve made a decision to shut out God. For some people, because of issues at their church or maybe a difficult time in their life they actually made a conscious decision to completely turn away.

There are basically three types of people shown in the Bible. First there is the nonspiritual person who has not accepted God at all. Second there is the person who has accepted Jesus as their savior but still lives by the world’s expectations. And third is what is considered a “mature believer.” This person learns to do the will of God no matter how he/she feels or how difficult it is.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  
1 Corinthians 13:11

This is where the term “baby Christian” arises. It’s the second type person described. Picture how a baby lives its life. Crying and throwing a tantrum when things get uncomfortable. Babies are very self-focused people. They don’t care if you haven’t slept all night or exhausted from a long day at work. They want, they need, they demand. If they don’t get it, they aren’t happy. They live off feelings and wants and needs. It may sound harsh, but how many of us are living our Christian lives this way?

No matter what level we are on, we should want to grow , but if we find we are still in the baby stage of Christianity, we should certainly make a commitment to God to start working with His Holy Spirit toward maturity.
Joyce Meyer, Change Your Words, Change Your Life

That’s why I like the verse from Habakkuk today. Prior to verse 18 the prophet lists all the things that are going wrong – the fig tree isn’t budding, there’s no grapes, the olive crop is failing, and there’s no livestock. Yet he will rejoice.

Great faith is maturing faith. Great faith is growing faith. And great faith is becoming stronger and great faith is standing on the truth of the Word of God. Not feelings, not other people’s opinions, not the past, great faith stands on the truth of the Word of God. Here’s what God is saying. And the focus is on God. Great faith is always focused on God.
Charles Stanley

And growing faith means choosing to be faithful. We humans don’t tend to like to be the cause of our problems. We want our lack of commitment to God to be about something that happened to us, an absence of the right feelings, or because of the world’s demands. But it’s really about where we have placed so many of our 35,000 decisions. In how many of them did we even consider God’s desires for us?

When you feel like quitting or running away, remember that you can’t run away from your troubles and you can’t run away from yourself. The solution is not running away; it’s running to. It’s running to the throne of grace and finding grace to help in time of need.
Warren W. Wiersbe, Prayer, Praise & Promises: A Daily Walk Through the Psalms

Take the time today to consider your decision making and how it relates to your commitment to God. Sometimes we are tasked to just decide to run to Him – not waiting for a feeling or some grand emotion to well up inside us. If we can make the decision to get up and go to work today or the decision to do the laundry or get the kids off to school we can make the decision to open our Bible. We can make the decision to have a conversation with Jesus.

Most of the 35,000 decisions we make today will be for the world of the flesh. How many can we carve out to be the ones that matter for all of eternity?

If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, 
it is for God; if we are in our right mind, 
it is for you.  
2 Corinthians 5:13

There’s a lot of criticism of Christians these days. We get called any manner of names from freaks to racists and dumb to science deniers. And we shouldn’t be surprised. No one ever said this would be easy.

I wonder if that’s why so many people, including parents, choose not to share their faith? Yes, I said including parents. A friend of mine grew up with a mother who considers herself a Christian. Yet she never shared her faith with her two daughters. Never encouraged them to come to church. Never explained what her faith meant to her. I’ve heard parents say, “I’ll let my kids decide when they get older as to what they want to believe.”

But think about all the things in life we are either willing or even feel compelled to share and teach others. I, for one, have a lot of advice in me to spread about the world spanning any number of topics! From a parenting point of view do we “wait till they decide” when it comes to teaching our kids about healthy eating habits? Do we wait for them to figure out on their own how to read or write?

How did we get to this point in our faith journey where we are so hesitant to share our faith out of fear from what the world would say about us? Out of fear we will get called crazy and “out of our minds?”

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him 
stand on the highest point of the temple. 
“If you are the Son of God,” he said, 
“throw yourself down from here. 
Luke 4:9

Right out of the gate, before Jesus can even start gathering up disciples, our friend, the devil, comes along and tries to tear down Jesus’ confidence. He tests Him multiple times to see if Jesus is who He says He is.

Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not 
put the Lord your God to the test.’” 
Luke 4:12

I always love Jesus’ responses to those who would say He was “out of his mind.” He never fails to give me a Perspective Change Moment. He doesn’t argue with the devil about the dangers of jumping off a cliff. He doesn’t present genealogy charts and Old Testament verses from Isaiah about His coming. He just says, “Don’t even test me.” He doesn’t sound angry or offended.

Ah, to be like Jesus. When I was contemplating this post, I got convicted of something I had done the night before. My husband and I were flying home from a visit with family. As we sat in our seats on the plane my husband dropped one side of his mask while trying to adjust his hat. A woman was making her way into the seat in front of us and turned and stared at both of us. Then she looked at my husband and said, “Sir, put your mask on.”

And boom, my hackles (whatever those are) started to rise. I laughed at her. I had all manner of comments I wanted to make but some supernatural force shoved me back in my seat and clamped its hand over my mouth. I sat there steaming, irritated. Very un-Jesus like.

I could’ve used the opportunity to be a peacemaker, a practicing Christian. A Christian who shows what Jesus is about rather than what the devil is all about. I could’ve been “out of my mind” with grace and apologies rather than defensiveness. I didn’t act like I would’ve a few years ago but I didn’t act like the person I want to be. Imperfect progress as my friend Betsy likes to say. Yes, my husband had removed his mask for just a minute. But this woman was clearly fearful and needed a bit of Jesus, not the world.

I told my BSGs the other day that if there was one thing I could try to erase from Christians’ minds it is the idea that “sharing our faith” doesn’t mean standing on a street corner screaming about Jesus. It means that when, given the opportunity by God, we behave like Jesus. We speak like Jesus. We seek peace like Jesus. We teach like Jesus. And we stand firm like Jesus. We step out of our own worldly minds and into Jesus’ mind.

But we have the mind of Christ. 
1 Corinthians 2:16

God will give you opportunities today. It may be with your children. It may be with your neighbor. It may be with a stranger on a plane. And yes, we need to act as though we are out of our minds with the love of God.

Tag: faith journey

35,000 Decisions

Out of Our Minds