Veering bikes: Where are you looking?

I don’t know about you, but this Christian walk thing can be really hard at times. How’s your day going? Is it like mine? Is it busy and stressful? Do you have some level of conflict with someone you love? Is your tennis elbow flaring up really badly at the worst possible time? Are you feeling guilty because you keep falling into the same patterns during times of pain or stress? Are you wondering if you’re the only one out there who can’t walk this walk for 2 feet straight without tripping on something that you thought you’d given to God months ago?

Today, in my quiet time (that my 17 yr old daughter forced me to do), I poured my heart out to God. See, yesterday, my pastor preached on the hurdles we have to clear to get to revival. He explained that having revival in your spirit is a matter of aligning yourself with God in worship, praying, and repentance. He explained how so many Christians burn themselves out in the religious activity of going to church, while others become disillusioned in frequent, seemingly unanswered prayer, and they wonder why the fire of revival never comes.

Have you done that too?

He referenced Isaiah 1:13-17 and how God is sick to death with our religious activity and meaningless prayers when we keep on living however we want to live. So, as I sat on my floor, with my quickly cooling coffee, my space heater blowing beside me, and tears running down my face, and I mourned the fact that I just keep screwing things up in my walk with Christ. I heard myself asking, “How many times will I come back to you, and seemingly repent of THE SAME CRAP over and over and over! I know that repentance is more than merely confessing sin. I know that it’s the actual turning away from the confessed sin and walking the other way. But I’m telling you, all I know how to do is confess. I’m finding more and more that I don’t seem to know how to walk the other way!”

Surely I’m not the only one with this issue. I acknowledge my sin. I confess it. I regret and grieve it. I beg for forgiveness. And I really do intend to never go back to it again. But dadgumit, if I don’t fall back into the same muck just a few days/weeks/months/hours…. later.

So I asked Him, “How do I avoid this sin? What do I do?”

His answer?

“Stop looking at the sin and look at me. Stop trying to avoid it. Stop.”

And then His Word began to fill my heart “Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.”, “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, don’t lean on your own understanding.”

See, if you’ve ever ridden a bike or driven a car, you know that whatever you focus on is where you will go. If I’m driving and I focus too long on something beside the road, my car begins to drift toward it. It’s just how we are wired.

If I want to choose God over idols/sin, I need to be focused on Him.

I don’t have to know how to handle every situation, where to go, what to do, what to say, or how to avoid my desire for approval and control. I just need to keep my eyes on Him and he will work the rest out. It sounds too simple to be true. But I’m reminded that the most life changing year of my life was the year I went through ReGeneration at Watermark Church and it kept me in the Word, Christ-focused, and in His presence daily for a year straight.

See, it’s not what you’re doing for quiet time, bible study, how much you attend church, how much you pray, how kind you are, how good you act. It’s about the amount of time you’re in His presence, listening, learning, and allowing Him to refine you that makes the life change. He makes the change. Not you. HE is the change.

The reason I could never achieve it, is because I was trying to do it. I had it under control. I was managing it, and I just don’t have what it takes to make long lasting change in my life.

He did the work on the cross, now He wants to finish the work in you. Will you stop and participate?