Are You Willing

                Ever since I began attending The Beacon of Truth a few years ago, they always preached about losing their traditions and doctrines of man.  Since the majority of the church members came out of the Amish and Mennonite ways, I never really thought that it really applied to me.  I mean, I didn’t have all these weird traditions and doctrines.

                Today during the sermon, I really felt God speaking to me about a couple of things.  (I’ll only mention one in this little blurb and the other tomorrow night.)  I heard God ask me, “Are you willing to give something up for me?”  First automatic thought was, “Of course, God!”  But then I heard Him say, “Think about it.”  That’s when I stopped and realized, it’s not as easy as it sounds!

                Recently a friend wrote a note about her convictions to not celebrate Christmas anymore.  As I read through the comments, it really made me realize how tight we hold onto the things in our lives that we love… whether they are pleasing to God or not.  Now, please don’t go into a little rant about how you think Christmas is Christ’s birth or how God sees nothing wrong with it.  I’m not writing this for debate and I’m not focusing on Christmas.  I just used it for an example.

                We each have little traditions or doctrines that we hold onto.  It doesn’t just have to be holidays.  It could be our mindsets towards certain things or people.  I’d like you to take a moment and just mentally think of some things that you hold onto.  Here’s an example.  I don’t really celebrate the New Years, but I do set new goals and usually stay up till the New Year rolls around.  What if I allowed myself to become sensitive to God’s voice and He said that He wanted me to treat New Years Eve and new years as any other day of the year?  So now I have a few options.  I can just say “screw you!  It’s not that big of a deal!”  I can ignore the voice.  Or, I could even say, “Get thee behind me, Satan!”  But there’s another choice that would be more pleasing to God.  Listening and obeying.

                There are some issues with whole topic though.  Many individuals, even “strong” Christian’s, are not sensitive to God’s voice.  We get too busy doing what we want to do, and we get all caught up in what we enjoy doing.  And the more I think about it, I think there are Christian’s who don’t want to be sensitive to God’s voice because they want to keep things the way they are.  (And we wonder why the world has so many “Sunday Christian’s”.  Many of us have this “come as you are and you don’t have to change cuz God loves you for you” mentality.)

                I guess here is my challenge for myself and you.  Honestly learn to seek God in EVERY aspect.  Don’t just say you are seeking God, and don’t do a halfway job of it.  We all need to get to the point to where we are sensitive to God’s voice AND have a willingness to be able to change anything in our lives that God wants us to.  Are you ready for the challenge?  Or are you too comfortable just doing a halfway job of being a Christian too?  Are you willing to give up your favorite traditions for our God?  He gave up more for us than we'll ever be able to give back, so why not do the absolute, honest best we can for God?