I was having a conversation with a
friend and a topic arose that I spoke about once, about people like me who do
not feel the spirit of God the way others do.
Those of us who don’t get the feeling, or the warm fever during
worship. And we talked about how that is
OK, but the question arose …How does god know I am doing what I am supposed to
do to get into heaven, if I can’t feel him how I can tell. This is when the comment was made “Fake it
till you Make it.” Yes, It was in jest and not intended to be dishonoring, but it
brought up an interesting point. A
question that, if you are on the fence or you are not sure if you are enough to
deserve Gods love, can mean the difference between moving to him, or staying
where you are.
It reminded me of a story I read about
a youth pastor who went so far as to create a pie chart of guidelines to
follow. Go to church, read your bible,
pray…essentially the 8 things you do to get to heaven. The kids Loved it, OMG
we have instructions, we have a guide! But that leader went on to explain why
he would regret that decision and wanted at one point to find all these young
people and apologize to them.
We all wonder every day, are we doing
enough? Are we messing up too much? If we follow Jesus, we worry so much about
losing our salvation and if we are thinking about following him, we hesitate,
wondering if we can be enough.
The bible
tells a different story.
It is much less
complicated; you see Salvation comes from Obedience.
Here is where it gets interesting. Obedience is a word a lot of people
fear. To a lot of people, it means
letting someone rule you, or control you.
Which could draw a lot of people from God if they don’t understand what
obedience to God really is. I want to
share with you one of the best examples of this obedience in action. In the Book of Acts we find a story. A story that finds Peter in Prison shortly
after Herod beheaded James.
12 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who
belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put
to death with the sword. 3 When
he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize
Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison,
handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod
intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying
to God for him.
6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was
sleeping between two soldiers, (sleeping?)
bound with two
chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared,
and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up.
“Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
Make note here. Notice what happened here. Peter rose, then the chains fell off. It did not say Peter waited for the chains to
fall off to get up.
8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And
Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but
he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought
he was seeing a vision. 10 They
passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the
city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they
had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a
doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s
clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”
You see obedience
comes when you trust God enough to do what he might be asking of you, even when
you have no idea what the outcome may be.
Don’t wait for your chains to fall off before you move. Don’t pray “God if you just take this away or
help me get that, I will be able to Obey”
“Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
Fake it till you Make
it? Not quite. When it come to our salvation it sounds more
like Faith it till you feel it! Try it
for yourselves. Do you feel like there
is something you need to do, something you have been putting off that you know
has to be done, something God might be asking you to do that scares you or
makes you uncomfortable?
Quick get UP,
he rose….then.. the chains fell off.
