A little ember

Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. (Romans 12:3 NLT)

Let's be truthful today - do we really make an honest evaluation of ourselves, or is it tainted by some misguided standard or lofty goal we have set for ourselves? If we were to be totally honest, most of us have set the bar either way too high or settled for it being way too low in a spiritual sense. We have become content in our 'lukewarm' state of being "Christians" but not living like Christ is our all in all, or we have become so down on ourselves because we think we haven't 'attained' the 'level' of Christian faith we think God must expect of us. Either way, we aren't right! God accepts us as we are, not as we will become. He wants us to have him as the center of our lives, with our whole hearts devoted to him.

We are not going to grow in Christ when we simply bide our time as Christians. We can go to church on Sunday, sing our church songs, and even read his Word on occasion, but our hearts aren't really changing much because he isn't our center - we are. We might think we are taking all the right actions, but if they are mere actions without any follow-through, they won't bring change. Change comes when we shift our focus off of 'living LIKE Christians' and allowing Christ to be living through us. In other words, we stop just going through the motions of Christianity and allow Christ to really begin to change us from the inside out.

What does this change look like? If I were to describe it as embers coming into full flame, you might get the idea. We all have a little ember of faith burning deep inside, but until we allow Christ to fan that ember, we won't see the flame of his life really take hold. When the flame begins to burn, there is change in our focus - we see things in a different way. Why? His vision for our future begins to burn within us and we begin to focus less on going to church and more on becoming his church. In other words, we begin to do more than 'act the part' of a Christian. We actually begin to serve, share, and give - not out of obligation, but out of a joyful hope that dwells within.

We find it isn't a chore to get into his Word. It actually begins to make sense to us - even some of the harder parts. Not because we suddenly became smarter, but because his Spirit is guiding our spirit to apprehend and comprehend it. We go after his truth with a hunger that is just not sated by a casual one verse a day kind of reading. It is as though we are being emptied of all the stuff that didn't matter and that 'void' is being filled with his Spirit. That is a good thing! We want to be filled - not just partially, but fully. The 'lukewarm' becomes 'red hot' when the embers are fanned into flames. Just sayin!