Live Awake

I've been a Christian ever since I was little. I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home where faith was always exemplified. But that meant I had to really work to never stop pursuing Christ. When it comes to faith, if you don't have the mindset to continually grow, you're going to go absolutely nowhere. Not only that, but you're going to start falling backwards. It's like pulling a sled up a mountain. If you keep pulling the sled and are moving forward, you'll keep moving up. But if you stop and sit down, the sled is going to slowly start going down the mountain, picking up speed as it goes. 

If you ever feel like you've reached a place where your relationship with Christ is strong enough, you should stop in your tracks and immediately do something to change that feeling. 

It's even like being an athlete. You should set goals along the way, but you should never reach a place where you stop practicing and training. Because what happens when you stop practicing and training? Slowly you will lose your technique, your strength, your muscle memory, and everyday you'll be pushed back even further. You probably won't lose all your knowledge and understanding of the game, but you'll lose your ability to play it to your full potential. 

So you're a Christian. And maybe you have been one for awhile now. You set goals along the way and imagine how strong your faith will be in the future. But then you reach a place where you think your faith is solid and you've done all you needed to do. You still go to church, chapel, and keep up your Christian routines. But slowly you start to lose a real relationship with God. Your heart stops beating for the God of all creation, and starts beating for worldly tasks and mundane things. Your worship becomes so routine you don't even feel like God is present anymore. You serve and give to others just because that's what you know you should do, not because you actually want to out of a heart for the Lord. And pretty soon, you've really lost everything that makes a relationship with God so special. You might know all the right things to do and still remember Scripture, but you've lost an alive and active relationship with someone who so desperately wants one with you. 

This is something I've battled with for a long time now. It's easy to compare myself to other believers and think to myself that I'm better off than them. Not only is that a wrong thing to do, but it also is completely irrelevant because God looks at me the same way He looks at you and everyone else. He looks at us the same way He looked at the actual sinners hanging besides Jesus on the cross.... And that is with an unconditional love, mercy, and grace that we will never understand. 

Some humans like to deceive themselves into thinking they have everything together. They keep up their routines and slowly start to fall asleep. 

That's me. 

That's where I was a few months ago. 

But Grace came in and literally knocked me down to my knees. 

And even though I couldn't see it then, I can see now how much I needed that. 

It's like I was sleep walking, and I needed God to shake me and break me so I could wake up and see everything I've been missing. 

1 Thessalonians 5:6-10 (MSG) 

 "So let's not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let's keep our eyes open and be smart.

 People sleep at night and get drunk at night. 

But not us! Since we're creatures of Day, let's act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

 God didn't set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ.

 He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we're awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we're alive with him!"

And with that, I'll end with one question:

Are you awake with the living? Or are you asleep with the dead?