Stability

Stability

Proverbs 12:3(niv)

No one can be established through wickedness, but the righteous cannot be uprooted.

Last night in Bible study we talked about "stability" as a Christian and in order to be righteous in God's sight, we need to be firmly grounded and rooted in our faith. In other words we need to be firmly planted and stay consistent in our faith in order to continue to grow and please the Lord.

I think many folks have a problem with being consistent and have stability and balance in their life, especially when it comes to their faith and that is why their faith is all over the place.  One week they're praising God and think He's awesome and the next week they're blaming God and don't understand why He's not answering their prayers.  

The problem is not God and His consistency or stability, the problem is us.  People want to be inconsistent in their church attendance and involvement, their bible study and reading, their prayer and devotional times and then they won't why their faith is unstable?  Most people who lack stability in their personal lives is because they lack direction, goals, purpose, or discipline and the same can be said for the "Christian" who is all over the place in their faith.

Christianity is a 24/7 365 personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  You can't love God on the good days and blame Him on the bad.  You can't just come to church or be involved sporadically or whenever you feel like it.  You can't just pray when you need something or read your bible occasionally. Do you see how the inconsistency has your life out of balance and that is why you're faith is so unstable?

God requires faithfulness of His followers, to receive the rewards or salvation and eternal life, we must be and remain faithful.  Salvation is a free gift, but it does require great sacrifice on our parts to be and remain consistent and faithful because the sacrifice for our salvation was great on Jesus' part. We aren't going to grow, mature, or be what God wants us to be if our lives lack direction, no purpose, no consistency, and all over the place.

People wonder why they struggle, don't feel God, don't see God, or their lives are a struggle and not blessed? I'm not a detective, but I bet I can trace it back to that person having no consistent or stable relationship with Jesus. We all have got to truly surrender to God, make a commitment, and

be faithful to God. This includes creating a stable environment in our lives that will cause us to grow, mature, and know God on a deeper level. 

We have got to be consistent with our Bible reading and study both individually and then with our church body.  We have to be consistent in our church attendance and involvement and getting connected to God and His church Body and doing our part as a body part in the Church.  We also need to be consistent in our service to God.  That is how we create stability in our lives is by having spiritual goals, direction, and purpose and by creating consistency in our lives.   All of this will help us know God better, become more like Him, continue to grow our faith, be used by God, and lead us to a better understanding of God so that we won't drift away, but up and down and all over the place, or in and out of church, or always struggling in our faith.

Deal with it or blow up

Deal with it or blow up

Everyone is human and we're fallible and make mistakes.  We also all have different personalities so we may handle situations different.  How do you handle when your upset with someone? Get your feelings hurt?  Disagree with someone?  Don't get your way? Offended? Let's be honest sometimes in these type of scenario's we're the problem, because we're easily offended, looking for something to be mad about, insecure, jealous,  or other reasons.  But, sometimes it's legitimate and how we handle it makes all the difference in the world.

Our goal in situations like this should be resolution.  Many times the offender or the person you may be hurt or angry toward might not even know you're upset or they did anything wrong.  Sometimes it's a matter of perspective and we're too sensitive and need to get over it and sometimes it's legit and we need to address it. 

However, what happens many times is we don't address it or deal with it.  We keep it inside and we might act different toward the person, being cold  or rude or unfriendly to them subconsciously or even more dangerous we let it build up inside of us until we blow up on that person or someone else.  That is not healthy and I also believe it can lead to sin.  In the Lord's prayer it tells us to "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." 

I also think the Bible backs ups the fact that we shouldn't allow things to fester on the inside and that when we have problems or struggles or issues that we need to deal with them while they are small before they become bigger or out of control and take on a life of their own.   So many conflicts and problems could be avoided if people would just be honest and talk to each other when things arise, instead of ignoring them or letting them build up and before you know it, there's tension, a fight, argument , hard feelings, etc...and for what? Many times for silly, stupid, or unknown reasons.

I would encourage everyone to first make sure you're not the problem and your own worst enemy, making sure the reason you are mad, upset, hurt, offended, or angry isn't because you've got issues going on.  Secondly, if it is a legitimate case of it, then deal with it at the lowest level, is it worth talking to them or letting it go?  Thirdly, if you do decided you need to confront or talk to them, do it in love, sincerely, and with your goal being resolving or finding resolution.  

Whatever you do, don't let those negative feelings build up in you because they will cause you to sin and not be a very good person and they will cause you to have strained relationships if you're going around blowing up on everyone because you let it fester.

Luke 17:3

So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.

 

Ephesians 4:26

“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry

Its about people

It's About People

I heard a saying a long time ago, "you can have nice things, or you can have children" and if you've raised kids you understand that children have a tendency to break, scratch, tear up, and stain furniture, carpet, the walls, and everything in between.  Most of the time its by accident or by children being rambunctious, hyper, or playing a little too hard or careless.  If you want to have nice things then you better not have children or live in your house because things overtime are going to become used, tattered, torn, stained, scratched, knocked over,  dented, or worn over time.

Sometimes we take this same mentality into our church buildings.  We treat these places like they are holy shrines.  I am not sure exactly where this practice began, but the truth of scripture is God's presence is no longer in a place, but in a person.  God dwells inside of each and every believer and the church is people, not a building or a place.  There is nothing special or holy about a church building other than when the "church" meets there to worship. Holy is God and Holy is His people. 

While I understand churches use God's money collected to provide places of worship, learning, and fellowship, and we want to take care of these facilities and take care of them like we would our homes or personal belongings. At the same time, they are meant to be used for ministry, service, fellowship, and worship and are not be worshipped or too much emphasis put on material things.

I've been in churches where it looked more like a museum than where ministry takes place, and it was treated like a shrine that couldn't be used or touched. In the bible they met in homes and local places and so they didn't have this type of distraction or problem. Its sad, but many folks care more about the carpet than they do lost souls, they care more about marks on the tables or dings on the wall then they do about loving people where they are with the love of Jesus.  Do you see how easily it is to lose our focus and get distracted by worldly things?

I know many would argue, we paid a lot of money or that or this is God's house or something to that effect, but remember the things we spent God's money on were bought or built,  so that they could be used by people for people.  The house of God is each of us, not buildings or facilities.  I'm all for taking care of our church properties and making them look good.  We need to make good first impressions to people when they full in the parking lot, look at the outside of our buildings, or go in our auditoriums, classrooms, or gyms. We want our church vans and buses to be clean and taken care of, but again remember all these things are to be used to minister to people.  God is to be worshipped, not things.  People matter over things. 

Even though we may try to keep our facilities updated, clean, looking fresh, or honor God with them, we also need to realize God is within us and that our focus should be all the people young and old who enter our doors. We want them to feel welcome, accepted, and loved.   And yes, sometimes they are accident prone, thoughtless, or messy.

I will always work as a Minister to have updated, nice, and useable places to worship, serve, meet, gather, fellowship, and study. But, I always pray those things will only be means to reach the lost, make disciples, worship, fellowship, and gather as the church family. 

Always remember church and ministry are about people and when you deal with people things will get worn, stained, broke, scratched, dented, used, ripped, and have natural wear and tear because of being used.  Things can be replaced, repaired, or fixed.  Souls and people cannot.  Let's be the church and use our buildings, properties, vehicles, and whatever else we own to share the gospel and minister to people as we worship and serve the Lord.

1 Corinthians 3:9(niv)

For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:16(niv)

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?