It crossed my mind recently, have we become lazy Christians?
Lazy to seek God, wanting God to seek us.
Lazy to read the bible, wanting it all to be explained and read to us.
Lazy to do good works, since Jesus did it all why bother?
Lazy to pray, Since God knows everything what's the point?
Lazy to tithe, since God can provide, why should I provide?
Lazy to feed the poor, to help those helping the poor, since God is love, He should do all this.
Ahh, laziness, you know what? a friend of my recently posted something on facebook that got me reading, it's not the fact that the post was somewhat offensive to my beliefs but more of the irony in it. It stated Isiah 58:11 and said, if God puts you in it then He will see you through it. Then a comment that stated, if you believe this then you believe that no one ever died from lack of food and water, or cancer. It got me reading this chapter again. One I must have not read for a long time because it blew my mind away in the irony of both things!
No.1 This verse had nothing to do with God putting you in any situation
No.2 it answers the skeptics question, since it talks so much about feeding the hungry and helping those more in need!
Here's the chapter:
Isa 85 (AMP)
58 Cry
aloud, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet and declare to My
people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins!
2 Yet they seek, inquire for, and
require Me daily and delight [externally] to know My ways, as [if they
were in reality] a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the
ordinance of their God. They ask of Me righteous judgments, they delight
to draw near to God [in visible ways].
3 Why
have we fasted, they say, and You do not see it? Why have we afflicted
ourselves, and You take no knowledge [of it]? Behold [O Israel], on the
day of your fast [when you should be grieving for your sins], you find
profit in your business, and [instead of stopping all work, as the law
implies you and your workmen should do] you extort from your hired
servants a full amount of labor.
4 [The
facts are that] you fast only for strife and debate and to smite with
the fist of wickedness. Fasting as you do today will not cause your
voice to be heard on high.
5 Is
such a fast as yours what I have chosen, a day for a man to humble
himself with sorrow in his soul? [Is true fasting merely mechanical?] Is
it only to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and
ashes under him [to indicate a condition of heart that he does not
have]? Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?
6 [Rather]
is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of
wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free,
and that you break every [enslaving] yoke?
7 Is
it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor
into your house—when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that
you hide not yourself from [the needs of] your own flesh and blood?
8 Then
shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing (your
restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily;
your righteousness (your rightness, your justice, and your right
relationship with God) shall go before you [conducting you to peace and
prosperity], and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then
you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will
say, Here I am. If you take away from your midst yokes of oppression
[wherever you find them], the finger pointed in scorn [toward the
oppressed or the godly], and every form of false, harsh, unjust, and wicked speaking,
10 And
if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the
hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise
in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday.
11 And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and
in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a
watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.
12 And
your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations
of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall
be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
13 If
you turn away your foot from [traveling unduly on] the Sabbath, from
doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a
[spiritual] delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor Him and it, not going your own way or seeking or finding your own pleasure or speaking with your own [idle] words,
14 Then
will you delight yourself in the Lord, and I will make you to ride on
the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage
[promised for you] of Jacob your father; for the mouth of the Lord has
spoken it.
Now here's where two extremes could kick in, one is, you see if you do it don't please God, but then that we can wipe out by seeing what God was looking at, the heart, and what He wished they did when they were fasting instead of fighting, set those wrongly accused free, feed the poor, house the homeless and cloth the naked. The other was just banking on one verse, which in this case is verse 11.
Don't get me wrong I am all for the promises of God :). But I am not for laziness, really, we are called to be conquerers, to be people who GO out, to actively forgive, to give when we can, to love genuinely, to repent when repentance is required, to not be so haughty and forsake the poor, to be real you know? what people used to call Humanity, that's all we need to be. Of course fearing the Lord is part of all of it.
Will you call me a law giving, works preaching Christian? Then call me that by all means, I believe in God's grace, that I am saved by mercy, and justified by grace. I believe in righteousness of Christ's blood, that only through His blood I am saved, only through His perfection am I able to stand before My Father in heaven. But I don't believe that is an excuse to be self-righteous/ lazy-righteous where we don't make an effort. On the other side, if our hearts are dry, if we go and do these things heartlessly, then you might as well not do them, but if you do them because you want to , because your heart is in it, because some how or another you have been transformed and you are beholding the mirror of Christ changing from glory to glory, because of the fear of the Lord, then yes do it!
You can't have faith with no works, if you can help a brother, if you can give without expecting return, if you can clothe and have the capability to do it, then why not do it?
James 2:14-19
Amplified Bible (AMP)
14 What
is the use (profit), my brethren, for anyone to profess to have faith
if he has no [good] works [to show for it]? Can [such] faith save [his
soul]?
15 If a brother or sister is poorly clad and lacks food for each day,
16 And
one of you says to him, Good-bye! Keep [yourself] warm and well fed,
without giving him the necessities for the body, what good does that do?
17 So
also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience
to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).
18 But
someone will say [to you then], You [say you] have faith, and I have
[good] works. Now you show me your [alleged] faith apart from any [good]
works [if you can], and I by [good] works [of obedience] will show you
my faith.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. So do the demons believe and shudder [in terror and horror such as make a man’s hair stand on end and contract the surface of his skin]!
At the end of the day, I am not saying works will save you, but doing good things are not a sign of law --> Salvation, it's quite the opposite, in doing good(with the heart, and faith) you are expressing your faith, you do it without wanting anything, not from others, not from God. Even if you know your heavenly Father will bless you, you don't do it in expectation of that, you do it because you want to, because you have found faith and express it to everyone.
We are not called to be lazy, if God has given you the ability to help, then help, honour those around you, I can tell you, He has made us able to do good things, the only thing is, if you are willing to do it or not, and if your heart has been changed in a way to do it. If it hasn't keep seeking Him, that's the least you could do, instead of sitting back and hoping He appears to you, why not find Him? He says He will be found if you seek Him, many times over.
So quit being lazy, after all if you say God is love, then should you not be of love reflecting His love? some how or another, the excuse I am not Christ will never stand here, no matter how true it is, because He will fill you with love so abundant, you will be leaking it. It's time to say, God is love, therefore I am also part of love, and I'll do my part in reflecting His love, some how or another.
John 15:10-14 (read the whole of 14 and 15 if you can and want to :-> )
10 If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love.
11 I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.
12 This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.
14 You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do.
So God bless you brothers and sisters in Christ, keep up the faith, the love, and most of all the walk with our Heavenly Father :).
-Chris