How is it that so many people manage to be devoted and consistent with their worship of Jesus, while I fail so often?
My devotional life is reminiscent of how I try to breathe quietly while walking upstairs so that my friends don’t realise how unfit I am. I want to appear as though I am giving Jesus the time He deserves, when the reality is that I often tell Him that I am too busy. It’s not because I want my friends to think I’m holy or righteous, it’s because I don’t want to admit to myself or anyone else that Jesus is too often in the backseat.
But God doesn’t expect perfection from me, and I thank my lucky stars for that. In fact, Paul, one of the pioneers of the early Christian church said,
“I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself… I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me”.
Philippians 3:10-13, MSG
You read that right, Paul didn’t have it all together. I must accept that I will fail at times and that I’m a sinner by nature. What is important is that I don’t give up, that I keep striving to place Jesus in His rightful place in my life. This starts with a meaningful and regular devotional life, in order to know Jesus through the Bible and develop a personal relationship with Him.
My new mantra is “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened by the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7, NIV).
Lord, I thank you for your patience and love for every one of your children. Our failures do not cause you to give up on us, nor do they sway your love for us. You reach for us despite all our shortcomings. Remind us to seek you every moment of every day that we may live our lives in you, to be rooted and built up in you. Remind us to thank you for literally everything, for nothing other than you is worth living for.
AUTHOR: Samantha Nightingale, attends College Church (Avondale).