Are God’s commands “white noise,” or is Jesus still changing your life?
Are God’s commands “white noise,” or is Jesus still changing your life? Don’t answer too quickly. Think about it. Let’s consider the value of a little sanctified introspection. What are the “metrics” you’ll use to evaluate? Have you ever really taken time to seriously evaluate where God has taken you from the moment you asked him to take over the management of your life?
The life Christ leads us into in his life-transforming process (big word sanctification) is a life that results in both the chipping away those things which are not at all like Christ and taking on and allowing God to develop those things that are. That is the role and delight of the Holy Spirit. He has that responsibility and with our cooperation He can work really well. Our spiritual maturity ought to begin to demonstrate through our actions as our mind and world view take on the character of Jesus’ mind and world view.
Getting back to the topic of our “introspection.” Most of us who have spent some years as admitted followers of Christ are familiar with what is often termed the Great Commandment. Found in Mark 12:19 and elsewhere, the words (commands) given us by Jesus himself say we are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” He adds “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” One of the challenges we have if we’ve followed Christ a while is that we memorize verses like these and file them away without continuing to absorb and apply them. They become too familiar. They lose their impact. They don’t stun us. They become “white noise.”
Verses like the above are certainly foundational but they don’t come with a checklist or a 1-800- “Hey God, how am I doing” number. Since we are without a checklist, just what are your personal evidences of loving God with all your heart? All your soul? All your mind and all your strength? You’ll have to take time and dig, but the excavation will be fruitful. “Search me, O God and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts.” (Ps. 139:23) And how are you applying “love” to your neighbor? This is not mental gymnastics, not abstract . . . this is action. Assuredly I am not confusing works with gaining salvation here. I am encouraging us to look at what fruit salvation is intended to produce in and through us.
May I encourage you to set aside some time and get quiet before the Lord and tell Him how you are availing yourself to His use in these essential imperatives? And then be quiet and strain to listen to Him speak to you. As you sincerely appeal to have his ear, I believe He will meet you and sincerely respond. This would be a divine intersection of heart and spirit between you and your Lord. He has plans to change the world in some way using you and me, (Eph. 2:10) and our age and spiritual sophistication are of no consequence. God desires to use us and use us up.
Are you more concerned with keeping a “reserve” in your tank as you eventually meet Jesus or in coming to Him having given your all just as He did for you and the world. Slow down. Take time. Consider what your real legacy looks like. Are God’s commands “white noise” to you or is Jesus still changing your life? Think About It.