My Christianity is a Selfish One

Friday, 21 September 2012

My Christianity is a Selfish One
“For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the Lord, They shall inherit the earth.” - Psalm 37:9

Those that have a relationship with God should be the envy of the world. The truth is that those who do have a relationship with the Lord often envy the world. As the world celebrates those who pursue their own happiness and displays it with every valued possession and selfish lifestyle, believers can’t help but take a look, and a second, stare -- soon we begin to wish. Maybe you are a stronger Christian underwhelmed by such things; you see them as mega sinners while hiding your envy in the form of judgment.

So our approach to personal happiness might be a little different, we use the name of God and require from Him help to reach our own dreams and goals. We act in the name of God yet without Him. It’s amazing how much we are able to accomplish without Him, at least by human values (even a few Christian ones). In this, our ‘Christian version’ of world values, wishing for other believers to envy us. God is here to make me happy, to help reach my dream. Our entire faith comes crashing down when things don’t go according to our plan. Is this how He intended us to wait for Him? God is not a means.

When I read that unbelievers will be cut off, that they will face eternal death it saddens my heart. No words can describe it, we wish that on no one! Believers rejoice when someone receives the Lord, all of heaven does! I look to God and beg Him to save those who do not believe. He reminds me that in Christ He offers salvation to all. It is the unbeliever’s sin that will go with him to his death, it is the sin he loved and wanted to stay in that states his reply to God revealing His love to him. Looking from this perspective how can any believer envy a heart that lives a life like this? Yet we do.

The believer is aware of his own sin, if not he is being made aware as we spend our entire lives stumbling, falling, walking, crawling, dragging ourselves away from it. Our refusal to stay in it is how we wait on the Lord. Now there is a mistake we make (among many) and it is this: we fail to see the enormity of our sin towards God. A heart that has seen something, even only a glimpse of our crime against Love will weep and seek true repentance. As we look at our friends and family who are not believers and our eyes remain dry, our knees without any bruise and our hearts unbroken, what type of Christianity are we living?

There is a beautiful story of two young Moravians who heard of an island in the West Indies where an atheist British owner had 3000 slaves from the jungles of Africa he brought to an island in the Atlantic. And the owner had said, “No preacher, no clergyman will ever stay on this island. If he is shipwrecked we will keep him in a separate house until he has to leave, but he is never going to talk to any of us about God. I am through with all that nonsense.”. Two young Moravians heard about it. They sold themselves to the British planter and used the money they received from their sale -- for he paid no more than he would for any slave -- to pay their passage out to his island for he wouldn’t even transport them.

As the ship left the river at Hamburg with the two young Moravians in their early 20s who would never to return again. For they had sold themselves into lifetime slavery simply that as slaves they could be as Christians for these others.

Their families were there weeping for they knew they would never see them again. And they wondered why they were going and questioned the wisdom of it. As the ship grew in distance the young boys saw the widening gap, one with his arm linked through the arm of his fellow raised his hand and shouted across the gap the last words that were heard from them. “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his sufferings.”

My unfaithful devotion needs to become a faithful one, I love my wants more than the Lord, I continue in the same sins so much I no longer see their enormity. I am a very selfish man who calls himself a Christian, therefore my Christianity is a selfish one. I know in my heart how unfaithful I have been to Christ, I am so embarrassed of my unfaithful offerings. My response to His love has not been kind, gentle nor faithful, I can’t even dignify what I have given back to Him to be an actual response.

His response to my unfaithfulness? "I love you."

Do you find that Christians tend to envy the world more than they are envied by the world? In what areas of your life have you been unfaithful, and in what ways can you turn back to God?