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Fed up with status quo Christianity!
Are you fed up with status quo Christianity? I am. But what can we do about it? I’ve realized that many times, the area we are most frustrated with is the exact area where God wants us to make a difference. So, once again, I am on a God-journey. If you are reading this article and feel God tugging at your heart, then you too can experience a God-journey. Please join me.
I find it exhausting to look around at Christians and see so many of us not reaching our potential (me, being the chief offender). I know God has more.
So, let’s see….another article on how to help us reach our potential and become more “Christian?” Nope!
I am not referring to growing in our walk with God. In the Bible, God tells us that we are changed “from Glory to Glory” (2 Cor. 3:18) and that when we “are babes we need milk but the mature need meat” (Heb.5:13-14).
The apostle Paul said that he would “run the race to receive the prize” (1 Cor. 9:24). I am referring to the perversion of these biblical principles. This is what I call “religion.” It is legalism masked in what the world refers to as Christianity. I have read the phrase, “religion conforms but Christ transforms” in several sources lately. God is trying to get our attention.
Personal Experience
Recently, God gave me a divine revelation of WHY I haven’t been able to quite “get there.” You will be surprised. It is a sad irony
For years I have been attending church, pursuing God and studying the scriptures, spending hours in prayer, and surrounding myself with Christian friends. I became very introspective, always examining my past behavior and motivation to make sure my heart was in the right place.
I have no bad habits or secret sin to torment my conscience into this intense self-examination. I just felt there was more that God had for me. I wanted desperately to do all I could so, as the apostle Paul said, I would “run the race with excellence” (Heb. 12:1). Yet all this left me exhausted with a spirituality that didn’t work. In fact, constantly reviewing my past left me feeling discouraged and shameful of who I wasn’t.
When you constantly review your mistakes or sins from your past, you are keeping something in your mind that isn’t in God’s. Many times we ask Him to forgive us . . . but we do not forgive ourselves.
When God forgives us, He gives us a free ticket to live as though we never sinned. He wipes the record clean. Talk about unearned forgiveness! Shame and discouragement dishonors God’s gift to us and denies the power of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.
Hebrews 11 explains how God records our lives. Repeatedly we read “by faith...” and the accounts of the saints who have gone before us. What did God remember them for? Their faith!
Accepting God’s Forgiveness Takes Faith.
It takes faith to believe that we are a “new creation” in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). When we accept God’s forgiveness, our history becomes “His story.” We can live as though we never sinned. Obviously this doesn’t mean that our past disappears, but it does mean that God doesn’t see us through our past.
He sees us redeemed from it because we asked His forgiveness and Jesus’ death and resurrection paid the penalty. This is what the old hymn means when we sing, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” If our Maker can view us that way, who are we to do otherwise?
I find myself reviewing my mistakes even after I ask God to forgive me. God showed me that I believe a lie. Stay with me here. (I am being transparent in the hopes that this will help somebody else caught in the same trap I have fallen into.)
I realized that I actually believe that if I keep the mistake in the forefront of my mind— then I won’t do it again. Somehow punishing myself (by thinking about what I did and how awful it was) will whip my psyche into submission and keep me from doing it again. This is a lie!
The Bible states that “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7) version. What we focus our thoughts upon is what we become! If we are thinking of the very thing we don’t want to do, we trap ourselves into doing it over and over again. AH!
How often do we meditate on what we don’t want to become instead of meditating on what God wants us to become?
A Solution
So, let’s stop examining ourselves! Stop evaluating every sin and mistake. Take these to God and ask His forgiveness, forgive yourself, and LET THEM GO!
Don’t keep on thinking, “I wish I could have done this instead of….” You took it to God, He forgave you, now believe that He did (faith), and move forward.
Looking back and regretting only ties you to something that God erased. When we do this, we come into agreement with the enemy, which allows fear and shame to enter our lives.
Do not meditate on the mistakes. Meditate on the forgiveness and how that forgiveness allows God to change your situation. Then, pray and bring your concerns to God (again this requires faith). But this is what pleases Him! Hebrews 11:6 (version). states, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” God wants us to ask Him for things we want and need in our lives.
A Process
It doesn’t mean we change overnight. God has shown me this is a process of changing the way I think. The Bible calls this “renewing your mind” (Romans 12:2). First, we need to repent for believing that what Jesus did on the cross was not enough for us.
When we can’t forgive ourselves, we are saying to God, “What I did was too awful; Jesus’ death wasn’t enough to forgive me.” Instead, accept God’s forgiveness. This enables you to step into the supernatural Power of the Cross – this is faith.
A renewed mind is absolutely necessary to experience the freedom that God intended to be the normal Christian life. When this happens, supernatural things will begin happening to you! This is what God wants for us, NOW! This is what God wants the world to see. This is what will draw other people to Him. The Christianity I have seen around me, I don’t want. It is too hard. It is legalism masked in Christianity.
After following hard after God my whole life, I am just beginning this God-journey. This is a whole different concept of what I thought “renewing the mind” meant.
I will continue to share the revelation God shares with me. I encourage you to journal what God shares with you. I am sure He is starting something in the hearts of people everywhere. He will begin to reveal lies that you believe also. Then you will not fall into the same trap over and over. He will give you Divine Revelation that He desires for you to share with and help others. Your history will become “His story.”
The world is becoming increasing evil, and we need more than “religion” to overcome it. Only Jesus can bring “transformation!”
Please, no more status quo Christianity!!
Copyright © 2008-2015 Dorena DellaVecchio, Ph.D.
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