Perfect Stranger, Part II: One Man's Trash Is Another's Treasure

[Continued from previous post]

So what is the "thing" you believe you cannot live without (besides God) that consumes your conscious waking hours? Do you mourn its loss if you cannot achieve it, own it, control it or be it? I assure you that for most of us, even Christians, it is not often the Lord. 

Not even a little. 

It is probably revolving around self-gratification, selfishness and greed. It is most likely relation related, work related or recreation related. It is most certainly sin related. It is not always directly spiritually related even though we’ll try and justify that it is. It can certainly have spiritual consequences. The danger in this is as simple as it is devastating. Whatever that thing is that bumps Christ out of the center of our vision, is the focus of a sinful heart and a sinful heart will pursue its sin to death because sin itself is a form of death. If the first and primary focus is not Christ…you are committing a form of spiritual suicide. If it controls your heart it controls your words, actions, moods. It invariably influences others in sinful ways making you twice as guilty then if you lived in your sin alone. If you are Christian and having this negative impact on other Christians you punishment will be twice has harsh because by influencing others you are in fact...a teacher.

You really must sit down and consider what is actually controlling your life besides Jesus. It is imperative that you figure it out because whatever it is will be the primary distraction from your progress towards holy. To help you out I will ask some questions. Where have you heard these following statements form you or others? 

“Things will only get better if I have this much money ____ .”

How many times did people say this only to become rich or well-off and then become addicted to poor or excessive spending habits thereby ending up in debt anyway? 

“Things will only get better if I can marry this person____ .”

How many times has this been said this only expecting that marriage would allow the person more control over the spouse? A control that they madly needed because there were things about the other person that drove them nuts even before the marriage. What's worse is their own life might have been out of control and in an attempt to find equilibrium they tried to control their environment or the people around them which included their spouse. This is the path to a destroyed relationship. This is also idolatry and is often tainted with a further comment along the lines of, “When we get married and have kids, things will get better.” (*facepalm*) The truth is we bring our sins with us to a marriage. We fell in love with other sinful people in a sinful world and two sinful people makes a relationship doubled with sin, not empty of it. We then add little people with a lot of sin to the mix. It takes more work not less. As I have learned, marriage is not a license to manipulate people through browbeating, it is a license to love unconditionally and sacrifice for others.

“Things will only get better if I have sex with this many people ____ .”

This one is a no-brainer that the statistics bear out. How many licentious and immoral people have said this (at least to themselves) only to end up with STD's (sexually transmitted diseases, some deadly). They walk away with emotional disorders stemming from an inability to find the “love” or self-importance they expected to find?

“Things will only get better if I get the approval of this person or these people.”

Sadly, the person saying this usually ends up achieving said approval only to find that the approval of said person is not as valued as once thought. Somehow the value of the person they once wanted approval from is demeaned in their eyes because 

they achieved said approval. This then produces a self-loathing for having been foolish enough to seek the approval of such a flawed person. This then leads to other sin like resent and anger.

“I will be happy if I have total independence and freedom”

The Bible and events in our lives often shows that the quest for independence never ends in independence or freedom. The wish for self-rule, self-sovereignty and freedom always seems to end in slavery. The slavery that people are kidnapped into is usually to the sins we felt we needed the freedom to pursue in the first place. Satan is an expert at bait-n-switch.

“I will only be happy if I totally obey all of God’s commands to the letter of the Law.”

We need to be brutally honest with ourselves on this one or we totally miss the point of this post. The "one thing" that people could use to replace God is religion itself. This includes a misunderstanding of Scripture itself. If you do not believe in the God of the Bible, you don't really believe in the true God. The Bible is clear that no mortal man could live up to the demands of the Law (Galatians 2:12). It is by faith that we are saved. In trying to obey or do (works) we attempt the impossible and therefore disobey Scripture. We create for ourselves a man-made scenario/situation that the Bible clearly says cannot happen. 

[Completed In Part III]