"The God Phase"

Ever have those times where you're just "going through a phase"?

When you had that imaginary friend as a child or when you thought your mullet looked awesome. (thankfully I never had a mullet phase) Or even when you were convinced that no matter how old you got you would always LOVE Pokemon so you absolutely NEEDED all of those worthless cards. (I realize there are some who are still obsessed with Pokemon, just imagine some other childhood obsession that eventually faded).

Unfortunately God usually becomes a phase in our lives. Now I want to be very very clear on something. I am writing this blog because this is something that I am very recently aware of and something I am working hard on trying to correct. O.K. now that I've gotten that out of the way, back to the really important stuff...

What I'm trying to say is that we treat God like some sort of popular trend, a lot of times this happens after Summer Camps, Youth Retreats, Missions Trips, Church Events, Baptisms, even weekly Sunday Church Services. We get all pumped up and excited to live for Christ and truly change who we are and how we live.  I'm not saying we don't actually feel that way, the tears we shed are real tears and the feelings we have are real feelings. But as time goes on the feelings and the tears and the promises slowly fade...and we slide back into our lives. We settle back into the comfortable Christian role, where Church ends at 12:00 sharp and we head off to our busy lives.  Now we could even read the Bible every night and pray before we go to bed and still suffer from this terrible disease. But there is more to life than that. Being a follower of Christ doesn't end after your prayers, or your reading, or after Church. That's when it begins because that is when we can go out into the world and into our busy lives and be ambassadors for Christ!  In 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul says to us "...we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ".  Take EVERY thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. A great example of this that I am constantly reminded of is when you see that attractive member of the opposite sex and want to take that second glance.  No big deal it's just a small look it won't hurt anything. No! God's word says "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people." Ephesians 5:3. 

Then why do we do it?

Train yourself and discipline yourself so that whenever you think a thought you question "Is this pleasing to God?" "Does it follow his word?" If the answer is no then ask for forgiveness and if you are not sure, look it up, ask a Pastor, Google it even! Anything you have to do to train yourself to take every single thought captive for Jesus. We live in a world where there is almost never a time when you can say you don't have access to God's Word. There are Bible Apps for phones and online Bible websites and Bibles!(Ya you know the ones made out of trees). They are everywhere and available for use, so use them.

I am not saying that I used to live like someone who has "God Phases" but now that I'm a Christian I'm all better. No, that couldn't be farther from it. I literally just recently became aware of my disease of pushing God to the sidelines of my life. I'll be honest that it is really tough to constantly be thinking of Jesus and meditating on his word and taking every thought captive for him. I will never fully figure this one out. (I know shocking right.)

What I do know is this.

You will be blessed when you can start to do this.  When you are completely serious about wanting to live for  Jesus you will have joy.  Not because you followed a set of rules, not because you said a special little prayer on the back of a card, and not because your friend was a Christian and put a good word in for you with the man upstairs. When you are completely honest with God and open your heart to him and allow him to reign in your everyday life, you will walk around smiling like a goofball because you know Jesus. And it is addicting, I never say to myself, "Well you know I enjoyed this Jesus thing but its really starting to get old". That doesn't happen because God said, "I AM" he is yesterday, today and forever. He never gets old fashioned or outdated or boring.

I know it is discouraging, because sometimes it seems like you are going nowhere and you are always failing and sinning . Welcome to the club! We are always going to be sinners! Read God's word and meditate on Jesus' teachings so that when sin comes knocking on your door you will be aware of it and like it says in 2 Timothy 2:22 "Flee the evil of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." Don't walk, Run from temptation and sin! When you know the truth and how life is supposed to be you will be aware of sin and can flee from it.

A lot of this blog has to do with the idea of being "Weird" for God that I wrote about in my last blog called "Weird: Because normal isn't working" I encourage you to read that blog as well so that you can grasp some of the ideas that tied into this blog.

stay beautiful,

Spencer Out! =)