Here’s an interesting question:
Have you ever needed a pep talk to keep doing the things you shouldn’t be doing?
It might go something like this:
“Alright! Keep that up (Fill in the blank with your own personal wrong doings.) My bad may be different from yours, but we all have something. Don’t quit now—keep that thing going. Don’t get discouraged. I know it’s hard but you can do it. Let’s get you a coach and a mentor.”
How ridiculous is that? We don’t need a pep talk, a coach and a mentor to keep us going our own way instead of God’s way—we do that naturally, all by ourselves. It’s usually not until some crisis or major change impacts our lives in a way we don’t like that we begin giving some thought to doing things differently.
It’s kind of like going to the doctor’s when you’re physically sick. If you’re like me or, as we have recently seen is the case with the democratic nominee for President, Hilary Clinton, you don’t have time to be sick and keep going when you should be doing otherwise. We self-medicate with over-the-counter drugs, taking care of things our own way, until the day we can’t get out of bed. Only then do we break down and make an appointment to see the doctor.
I can still hear our family physician sigh and ask me, “Why did you wait so long to come and see me?” My explanations of a busy work schedule and attempts to self-cure fell on deaf ears as he listened to my chest and instructed me to take a deep breath, cough, breathe, cough… He wrote in my chart and instructed the nurse to escort me to x-ray for a photo op. Thankfully, there was no pneumonia but I was suffering from a rip-roaring case of bronchitis.
Prescriptions were scribbled, torn from a pad and handed to me along with strict orders to rest in bed and drink lots of fluids. I was dismissed with a gesture toward his diploma clad wall and the kind, yet firm reminder, “That’s what I’m here for, Penny. To help you do what you can’t do for yourself. Now go home, get in bed and I’ll call you in three days to see how you’re doing. And, next time, don’t wait so long to come see me!”
That’s exactly what we do spiritually as well, isn’t it? We try to fix our natural desire to go our own way by ourselves doing “good deeds” and convincing ourselves that we’re not so bad. The problem is, no matter how hard we try we can never quite get it right. We can never be perfect and God, who is perfect, cannot settle for less. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Like it or not, we need help to do what we cannot do ourselves.
But because God loves people more than anything, He has provided a way out of this hopeless situation through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. You can choose to believe in Christ, allow him to help you begin living life God’s way, and know for sure you have been cured of your sin-nature so you will be welcome one day in heaven, or you can keep going your own way and hope for the best.
So, what are you waiting for?
