Lost in Nowhere
I’ve shared before that one of my biggest struggles in my faith was my inability to let go and let God. I’ve been told so many times to just sit still and let God handle things but I’m a very progressive person. Sitting still, sitting back, just trusting God felt like I was doing nothing. I needed to be doing something. I needed proof that my prayers would be answered and my own actions—in my eyes—were the proof.
It was like saying, I know God will answer my prayer because I fasted, I gave a hefty offering, and I always pay my tithes. But I didn’t realize for a long time that I was putting my faith in my actions and not in God. It took me a while to learn that I didn’t need to do that. I just needed to sit still. Unfortunately, I’m not the only Believer who has struggled with this.
Last Sunday my pastor gave a sermon on being a doer, not just a hearer in the Body of Christ. She talked about acting on your faith and being more than someone who just listened to the Word of God. That’s exactly the kind of sermon that encourages the behavior that got me stuck in my faith before. There was nothing wrong with the message, what was wrong was the way that people like me may have interpreted it.
I’m not someone who ever needs to be encouraged to do or to act. I’ve always been told the opposite actually, to stop doing and start depending on God. Just chill out V, is what I always hear when I ask for prayer.
Thankfully, I’ve gotten much better. The Lord blessed me to relax, to let go and let God. But in that blessing I became content. I was suddenly satisfied with doing nothing and lost my will to fight on. You could say I became a lazy Christian.
Does that describe yourself?
Are you content where you’re at in life?—Where you’re at in your faith?
For me, that’s a scary question to think about because there is nothing virtually wrong with my life at the moment. I have a wonderful family, a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood, I go to an awesome church, and I have some amazing friends. I may not be making as much money as I’d like, I wish I had a newer model car, I’d like to have my own place, I’d love to share this life with a wonderful Christian man—but hey, it’s not so bad here. What do I have to complain about? What was I rushing God for?
Those thoughts got me to stop worrying, to stop acting on my own, but they also got me to stop pushing altogether. I became lost in doing nothing—so lost that I hadn’t realized I was going nowhere, both in life and in my faith.
So, what is wrong with being ok with the things I have? Doesn’t the Bible encourage us to be content?
Yes, it does.
“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Philippians 4:11 KJV
But God destined me for greater things than what I have and who I am now. I am not always going to live at my current address, I am not always going to have my current job, I am not always going to be alone.
Continue that scripture.
“I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:12-13 KJV
While it is important to be content in whatever situation, in whatever state. It is also important to remember that we are coheirs with Christ and that we are destined for greater than what we have. Every day is going to be better than the last.
God can’t prepare me—or you—or anyone else—for greater things if you’re rejecting them. While I wasn’t outwardly saying I didn’t want better, in my heart, I had lost the desire to work for better. I had become so content, I could no longer acknowledge that there was better and that I would soon find it.
Think of this scripture, “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” James 1:23-24 KJV
Do not just hear the Word of God. Act on it. Don’t just believe for greater things, know that they are yours. Prepare yourself now for the blessings to come, say to God; I am ready! I want it now! And if YOU God are ready, if it is YOUR Will, bless me now!
So many Christians get lost in mumbling ‘not my will but Yours be done’ that they forget, God’s Will IS prosperity. His Will IS success. It IS love. It IS joy. It IS peace. It IS happiness. Do not be ashamed to pray for and to expect to receive these things in your lifetime.
Find that balance between working for your blessing while being content with what you have. Find the balance between listening and studying but also doing the work of the Lord. Be both a hearer and a doer.
God bless