Its Mine!
As we look at Ephesians 4-5 at Flatland Church, our pastors have shown us that we accquire a lot of spiritual junk and we need to have a spiritual garage sale and get rid of it. Jesus has already paid the price, we just need to be willing to give it up. Unfortunately, we have a tendency to cling on to all of it saying, “Its MINE!!” This week Pastor Bart showed us that being separated from the life of God equals acquiring junk. If we stay connected to God we will not collect junk (or at least keep it to a minimum). But how do we stay connected to God?
Pastor Bart had three points to share with us that we can see in Ephesians 4-5. We should 1. Know God 2. Imitate God and 3. Thank God.
There is a big difference between religion and a relationship, between knowing about God and knowing God. Maybe the most important thing pastor said was that it takes time to have a relationship with God and by taking time with God we won’t have time for the junk. We often don’t take time with God because we are clinging to our junk. My time is MINE! What I want to do with that time is mine! But if we give that time over to God, we have to give up that junk. The choice is ours, time with God or time with our junk.
The challenge we all have, the challenge I have to to take time with God putting aside some of my “fun.” Stop playing games and start praying more. Stop reading a lot of tech news and read the Good News.
As we get to know God we should want to become like Him. Eph 5:1-2 is fairly clear there. Imitators of God. Christ is our greatest example. As I have written elsewhere on this blog regarding Philippians 2:1-11 becoming like Christ means giving up our rights. Clinging to “my rights” is possibly the biggest piece of junk we can carry. As imitators of God we must give up our rights, give up everything that we have and are for God. As we imitate Christ, we will no longer have strong desires to keep that junk. Pastor Bart said it, “Live the Life of Love.”
Finally, we must give thanks to God always. Paul says this so many times throughout his writings it is not trivial. By thanking God, who He is, what He has done, and for what He will do, all the junk we try to carry around with us becomes obvious in our way of living the life of love (Eph 5:3-4). We truly need to always give thanks even when what we are going through seems horrible and what we have gone through was the worst thing in the world. How, because we know that God is working in us something wonderful. We may not see it or understand it but if we let God be God, if we thank God for His wondrous works even when we don’t see them or haven’t seen them yet, we enter into a relationship that is marvelous.
This week I will take more time to be with God, to live the life of love in God, and thank Him for all He has done, is doing, and will do for me and my family.