If you want to be with me, you have to follow through with every word you say. And I, all I really want is you, for you to stick around, to see you every day...but you have to follow through- Gavin Degraw.
The first few months of a romance are incredible. Yes, every couple that falls in love does almost everything right in those first few months. It is considered to be the "honeymoon" stage, the phase where blushes never cease and frowns hardly appear. Everything feels right. No regrets. And then comes the aftermath- the human tendency kicks in, and then we don't want to "follow through" anymore. And then life becomes hard. We become human again.
The Twist
If you want to go with God's love, you have to follow through with every word you say. Just like many lovers remember the first day they fell in love and this memory triggers them to "follow through," you must also remember the reasons you first fell in love with God. You must remember your stones...the stones you picked up from the middle of the river while God opened up a path for you to cross over. You must remember that you are not like everyone else, that you see things differently and you have had a different experience. You must pick up where you left off, and you must follow through.
Top 3 Reasons Why You Don't Follow Through:
1) You Lack Understanding
Whenever anyone speaks profound stuff about God, you are amazed, but you don't stop to really understand the message. So after a while, the memory of the message is drowned. (Seed sown by the wayside and birds eat them--Matthew 4 & 19). Understanding is not meant just for others, it is meant for you. You are supposed to understand the deepest things about God. It is not such a mystery that can't be revealed.
2) You Lack the Strength or Courage
#1 is not the problem. You understand what's going on, but simply cannot find the strength to implement it. So yes, you get all excited, but only temporarily. When you're faced with the real task you shrink away from the opportunity (seed sown on stony ground with not very much soil (Matthew 13: 5 & 21). You need to find the strength and courage because they are right there inside you.
3) You are Blinded by Lies
This one is because of the media and various news resources you have at your finger tips. Lies. It is not your fault, the lies are supposed to be there to test you. So you peek into the bible and then peek into your TV and Magazines, and you choose the latter over the former. A book called "Conversations with God" by Neale Donald Walsch is one of such lies. It hides under the cover of an innocent sheep, but the details inside are filled with lies. Lies about what God's responses are to His children, answers that obviously have no relationship with God's true words (Seed sown among thorns that choke the plant--Matthew 13:7 & 22). Be careful what you read, if it's not God's word don't let anyone tell you it is. Or else, you won't follow through with the truth.
If you want to be with me, you have to follow through with every word you say.
Do you WANT to follow through but find yourself doing otherwise?
Is it too hard to follow through?
Is it easier said than done?
Photos by RedBubble & Google
28 comments:
Great post, Jaycee
I like how you applied the seed story here that Jesus told. It is often hard to understand by many but you did a great job of explaining it here with real examples.
I love your personal quote at he beginning! That's a profound statement!
I don't always folllow through - mostly from lack of strength or courage - fear jumps in there between the two and fills my head with the lies. It is a daily battle sometimes. But I'm learning how to discern the truth which opens my eyes to the lies. I know how to walk in victory! I just don't always do the steps to walk in victory. The enemy rides a slippery slope and if we get lazy -he'll push us over. I don't worry about getting back up - I just wish I didn't stand so close to the edge sometimes and put myself in harm's way. We have to stay awake - we can't sit back and expect victory to come. We have to fight for the victory that is ours in Christ Jesus. We must be warriors - there is a battle going on!
Patrina <")>><
His watchman on the wall
Amazing post... I think I relate with the lacking courage thing... You have giving me something to think about
This is so great and inspiring...yea i have fallen so short in following through and mostly based on the reasons you mentioned, this is really food for thought and action
thanks
This is very true. It's like the question 'why did I get married?'
We need to step back in our hardest moments of doubt and ask 'why am I His bride?'
Christ help us all!
Following through takes a commitment, to give it what it takes, to follow God's voice and word deliberately...
We definitely must choose the wheat from the chaff. Awesome!
@Patrina...to follow through sometimes we need to encourage each other and keep saying, "yes, we can do this." I'm glad you're learning how to discern the truth that opens your eyes to the lies, so am I :)
@Harry...having something to think about, something that can change your mindset for the better, is always worth your time. Thank God :)
@Funms...I'm excited that the zeal to follow through in everything you say will return to you. It won't be impossible for you, in Jesus Name. Amen. Cheers to a wonderful day ahead...:)
@Writefreak...commitment. Marriage is the perfect example! It takes a lot of dedication to be totally committed to someone. The bible even uses marriage when it says, "Jesus will return for His bride, the church." Hope u're doing great missy...
True word Jaycee. God doesn't want us lukewarm. Just like I wouldn't want to be in a relationship with someone who is half-hearted towards the relationship. I may love them totally but it will still grieve my heart that they won't go all the way...
@HomieGFunk...true, God loves us 100%, but how many times do we love Him back 100%? Thanks for that addition.
Thanks for this post Jaycee. I had need to ask question on books written about the revelation of heaven & hell by some authors especially by Mary Baxter. The book put FEAR into me rather than love. It took the GRACE of GOD for me to get out of it! please educate me. Tnx.
You are absolutely right, for when we become humans again, we forget the reason we fell in love in the first place. I try to always recount why i want to keep following through with everything, especially with the Lord, because this world blinds our eyes and 'lies' to us about why we decided to follow through in the first place. Reminds me of the passage in the Bible that says to return to your first love.
Word.... !
Most of the time we forget why we start something or fall in love in the first instance... We really must retrace our steps to make sure our journey is still in the right direction, with the right mindset and infact still valid! Father Help us...
again... Word...
@Nitty-Gritty...I haven't read Mary Baxter's book on the revelation of heaven and hell. But I would like to say that the main point about life as a Christian is that we are NOT trying to avoid hell and go to heaven. That's not our main goal in life. We are Christians because we found love, we were lost but now we're found...and we must tell others who are lost that they can be found too. The description of hell is not made to scare us to choose heaven by all means. There is nothing wrong with knowing the descriptions of heaven and hell (and I don't think anyone can "fully" describe them)...sometimes those descriptions push some towards God all the more. But for those who already know, this should not be the focus.
@Mwajim...that's the specialty of the world, to distract us so much that we forget. :)
@Remi...yup..."word" Hiiiiiiii!
it is about time we tied romance with the word of God, however, i fear we may start to look at relationships a mite coldly which may kill all the excitement
@Jaycee,
Also, just to share. During Bible study this week, we shared how through Christ, we have been given the capacity to handle anything presented to us.
1 Corinth. 10:13. I pray that Christ sees us through on our walk.
Bless you for blessing others.
@Jinta...that's what the world is doing today actually, the word "romance" itself has been bastardized. God's love cannot be compared to the world's standards of love, but the only way for a lot of us to understand it is to start by studying the relationship between a man and a woman in love. And then at a certain point we will catch the revelation of God's love which transcends anything we can ever imagine.
@NakedSha...thank you so much for that scripture. It really seals this post finely, and gives us something to pray about...that Christ follow us through in this walk... That bible study was not a coincidence! :)
Hmm... that is a new one to me JAY. If we are not avoiding to miss hell & make heaven, why are we xtains? One of the objectives of the church i attend; REDEEMED CHRISTIAN CHURCH, is to make HEAVEN. It is a FOOL that says there is no GOD,& it is only the ELITE that knows JESUS is the way, truth & life. IF we love GOD, for WHO HE IS & NOT WHAT HE DOES FOR US, then we all ought to be SINLESS! Alas! it is the FEAR of not going to HELL that keeps many xtains on their toes! IF NOT, we would just put on the Christianity cloak & continue enjoying our sinful pleasures! My sister, e no hard to do bad o! So what say you?
it was like you were writing to me
@Nitty...let me put it this way, what I am trying to say is "It should not be ONLY the fear of hell that should keep us in this path."
Now, we must avoid going to hell by all means, and we must strive to go to heaven. But we shouldn't be on this path ONLY because we want to avoid hell. There are many more important concepts about God than just heaven and hell: there's love, purpose, abundance, joy, the fulfillment of our existence...and many other things that God has granted us. We are not just living this life to avoid hell. I don't know if you understand me...
@Rene...:)
Morning Jay, i get the jest. The way Pastors preach about PROSPERITY & PERISHING in hell fire had been imbibed into my MEDULLA OBLONGATA! hehehe! Love JAY? P-L-E-A-S-E don't let me start on that! Have a nice weekend.
@Nitty-gritty...have a lovely weekend with family. :)
Just an added comment from my Oswald Chambers Devotional today...
it seems to help address Nitty-gritty's quest for clarity in your comment, Jaycee about being followers of Christ because we want HIM and not jsut to go to heaven to avoid hell. I thought your extended comment was great claification. this is just to back you -up! :)) It is great to ponder this...
"Then Peter began to say unto Him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed Thee. . . ." Mark 10:28
"Our Lord replies in effect, that abandonment is for Himself, and not for what the disciples themselves will get from it. Beware of an abandonment which has the commercial spirit in it - "I am going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy." All that is the result of being right with God, but that spirit is not of the essential nature of Christianity. Abandonment is not for anything at all. We have got so commercialized that we only go to God for something from Him, and not for Himself. It is like saying, "No, Lord, I don't want Thee, I want myself; but I want myself clean and filled with the Holy Ghost; I want to be put in Thy show room and be able to say - 'This is what God has done for me.'" If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment; it is miserable commercial self-interest. That we gain heaven, that we are delivered from sin, that we are made useful to God - these things never enter as considerations into real abandonment, which is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself. "
Oswald Chambers ~ March 12 entry.
Patrina <")>><
His watchman on the wall
I love this! Should we desire love to last forever, it needs to be daily rekindled. We need to continue to seek God daily. Walk with Him. Breath in Him and Live in Him. No wonder the bible says, "...in Him we live, and move and have our being..."
Just as we wouldn't have been without him, our 'be-ing' should not be without Him if we must remain in love.
God bless you Jay :)
- LDP
@ Le Dynamique...God bless you and increase you on every side, may you be someone after God's heart...like David.
okay
i am going to start catching up on all the blogs i have missed in the last two weeks
this post is very relevant.
i thimk i fit into the second category sometimes and lack the courage and faith to see it thru' to the next level
in regards to heaven and hell raised by nitty gritty
oswald chambers words quoted ring true
If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment; it is miserable commercial self-interest.
@Kafo...I fall into those categories sometimes, and I just thank God for His strength and grace that causes me to get back up again and fulfill my purpose.
About giving God something because we want something back, we would only be wasting our time. He doesn't require anything from us because we can never repay Him.
I'd love to hear more of your views on the heaven/hell issue :)
One of the treasures of childhood is that boundless capacity for wonder. Then, adulthood comes along and a distasteful spectacle begins - life becomes a habit - nothing truly excites us anymore - now and again we are titillated, but it never lasts - simply put, the childhood faculty of WONDER is lost.
A child's heart is required for a perfect symphony with God and even in human relationships.
It is a difficult feat to achieve, but any one who can carry a child's heart into adulthood is truly blessed.
There is a reason why Christ made this statement in Matthew 18:3
@Eyitemi...I was just about to add that this is the reason why Jesus said what He said about children, but you took those words out of my mouth. May our childhood fascination remain with us in adulthood.
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