PRESSED to Push or PUSHED to Press

What is your WHY?

Ever feel like the world is pushing against you. 

Ever feel like the world is doing all it can to get you to compromise your faith, your beliefs? 

So what are you going to do?

I push back.

Sometimes I feel that the area that I am being pressed and pushed at directly affects my personal relationship with God, and my willingness to be obedient to God's Word in spite of how it makes me look in the eyes of others who would want me to compromise my beliefs and be okay with things being done in my presence that I know that God disapproves of. Now while everyone has free will, and the freedom to choose, and while I cannot control the behaviors of others, I also should not have to compromise my own position of favor with God by being required to "approve" of something that I am clear that God disapproves of - especially in areas where God's Word is very clear about how God feels about a matter. Requiring me to make a choice in favor of someone else's ungodly behavior encroaches upon my freedom to choose to obey God. So, at the end of the day, I would rather have an individual upset with me because I didnt compromise than to jeopardize my position with God. My personal relationship with God is just that important to me.  More important to me than any other relationship.

Why?

Because God is the Source of all life. Because if it is in Him that I live move and have my being, then I am truly nothing without him.

So when Jesus says at Luke 9:25 "what does a man benefit himself if he gains the whole world but loses his own self or suffers damage?" I have to give that real consideration. 

(What would I benefit if I am not around to enjoy the relationships God affords to all people all because I did not obey God?) So, for me, God comes first.

(Plus I've learned the hard way that not listening to our loving heavenly father is not the wisest decision. Ignoring the counsel and warnings of our heavenly Father always ends up in the suffering of hard knocks that could have been avoided. Always. I repeat, what is messed up is that had we practiced listening, those struggles, heartaches, hard knocks, and mistakes could have been avoided.)

With that being said, I find that the torture stake is truly that - a torture stake. 

It is definitely not easy being a Christian today. (I can't speak for yesterday even though I am now reminded of the Martyrs for Christ, and how they were killed for their beliefs (burned alive at stakes, fed to lions, hung, etc., all because they believed in Jesus and would not compromise their faith.) Jesus told us at Luke 9:23-26 to pick up our torture stake day after day and follow him continually. 

This is our assignment - day after day if we want Jesus.

Yet, I also find that it is not necessarily the world that makes it hard to be a Christian. The difficulty comes not from the world but from those who "knew God but did not glorify him as God nor did they thank him, but they became empty-headed in their reasoning and their unintelligent heart became darkened..." and "they did not approve of holding God in accurate knowledge ..." 

(Romans 1:21,22,28-32)

I am referring to those who compromise Gods Word. "Although these know full well the righteous decree of God, that those practicing such things are deserving of death, they not only keep on doing them but also CONSENT with those practicing them." (Romans 1:32)

It is these ones who make it hard to be a Christian. Those that compromise the word of God. Those that try to condemn you for your own obedience by calling you "righteous over much" or by saying that you have a "religious spirit". Nevermind the fact that God said that "obedience is better than a sacrifice".

Regarding these ones the Apostle Paul wrote, "For there are many, I used to mention them often but now I mention them also with weeping, who are walking as the enemies of the torture stake of the Christ, and their finish is destruction, and their God is their belly, and their glory consists in their shame, and they have their minds upon things on the earth." (Philippians 3:18,19)

To these ones, my response comes from the Bible also. Joshua 24:15 "Now if it is bad in your eyes to serve Jehovah, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods that your forefathers who were on the other side of the river served or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are dwelling. BUT AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSEHOLD, WE SHALL SERVE JEHOVAH."

Don't ask me to consent to or cosign to, to agree to or participate in anything that you know Gods Word says that God disapproves of. Just like it is written in Joshua 24:16 so too do I feel that "it is unthinkable on our part to leave Jehovah so as to serve other gods."

But let me add this...

James 4:17 says "if one knows how to do what is right and yet does not do it, it is a sin for him".

God gave us all free will. We all have the freedom to choose whether or not we will serve God - a choice that comes with consequences. (See Deuteronomy 30)

I have chosen to be obedient and serve God Almighty Jehovah following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ who said that he himself did nothing of his own will but that whatever the Father told him is what he did. (See John 5: 19-30). 

That is my choice for me and this is my why...

My desire to be obedient to God and so I do my best (though I do fail many times) to follow what I have come to understand through my personal study of Gods written word. This is my why for why I won't agree to or do a lot of things. This is not to be judgmental of anyone else and the freedoms that they have to say or do. This is simply reflective of my own personal journey as I walk with the Lord. 

1 Corinthians 10:23 New International Version (NIV)

The Believer’s Freedom

23 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.

What is your why?