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What’s the point of the life we live? What direction do we point our feet when we take steps towards our greatest desire in life? Between now and our eternity with God, what are we moving towards?
Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)
At a certain point in our walk with Christ, we will have that “Aha!” moment. Those who are saved later in life often have this at the moment of salvation, while those who were saved at a young age may not get it until they’re teens or adults.
That moment is when we look around at everything we’ve been pursuing in life and realize it’s worth nothing. Relationships, money, pleasure, power… all these things the world says will bring us satisfaction end up failing us time and again. That’s when the Holy Spirit reveals an incredible truth that peels away the lies of the world and shows us who God truly is and what our lives in Christ are all about.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
These two verses were part of my own “Aha!” moment. It’s when I realized I was taking my life in Christ and trying to shoehorn it into the secular worldview I’d spent my life building. I was trying to find pleasure in the same things as God’s enemies, and then trying to make God somehow fit into that quest for satisfaction.
We all love that moment, because we glimpse the true majesty of God and feel the weight of His holiness. Our lives get on a fast-track to radical transformation as we seek to let go of everything holding us back from truly pursuing Jesus Christ.
But if we aren’t careful, we can lose that passion for Christ without realizing it. Those things that once seemed new and exciting eventually become commonplace in our lives. The refreshing experience of serving Christ becomes part of our day-to-day lives, and we forget the foolishness that God brought us out of. Eventually, we may find ourselves settling for “good enough” in our walk with Christ.
This point of settling varies between individuals. Some may settle for reading their Bible or teaching a Sunday school class, and their growth slows to a crawl or stagnates altogether. Others may find this point much later, perhaps when they’re a pastor or a Christian celebrity. Whatever it is that causes us to lose focus, the God who was once front-and-center in everything we did eventually gets slowly moved to the back.
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and I will remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. (Revelation 2:4-5)
The stories of pastors and teachers who are held in high esteem, only to reveal that they’ve been faking it for years, are heartbreaking. We see people who may have once had a passion for the truth of God’s word, but through circumstances and compromises their service to Christ becomes hollow. They say the right things and seem to live the right life, but deep down they have the wrong motivations.
These public figures who fall so far from what they once loved are a warning to us. They remind us that all of us are so easily swept away by our emotions or finding truth anywhere other than God’s word. They show us that even those who think have reached the pinnacle of the Christian life can lose sight of what truly matters while still keeping up appearances. They show how crucial it is to not just settle into the habit of the Christian life, but to always desire to keep moving onward in our faith.
Ultimately, there’s only one way to avoid falling away from our God. The Christian life doesn’t have an idle state – either we’re moving forward or falling away. Consider the contrast Paul gives us as he points out that we can’t take the world with us as we pursue Christ. Instead, we must put to death those very things that we once turned to for satisfaction:
Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. (Colossians 3:1-7)
Christ didn’t just save us from the penalty of our sin. He brought us into a new life that is free from going in the same direction as the world. We are no longer to dirty ourselves with temporary and imperfect things, but instead we are to keep ourselves mentally, spiritually, and emotionally pure by setting our desire on Jesus Christ alone. The life He calls us to isn’t stationary, but a daily pursuit of our perfect, pure, and holy God.
