Day: June 19, 2012

We are asked to give up so much in this life once we come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. There seems no way around the fact that much, if not most, of what was integral and important to our lives before our conversion must progressively go, or at least be transformed, if we are ever to move forward in our sanctification. This is a profoundly disturbing thought for those of us whose lives before Christ did not seem to be “all bad”. I would imagine that those souls who knew only misery and degradation before God rescued them have a much easier time with this principle. If your pre-Christian life consisted mostly of felt misery then what would keep you from looking to the cross and happily dumping all that was so obviously not of God?

It is not quite as easy for those of us who grew up in relative affluence, with disposable income that allowed for many of those “First World” pleasures that worldly people assume is their birthright, some of which are inherently sinful and some not. We are the ones who only half-jokingly sing that classic parody of missionary zeal “Please don’t send me to Africa” or the not so innocently reworded classic hymn, “I Surrender…Some”. For us the idea of complete surrender of all we ever had or knew during the “not so bad” days of our previous lives can be, quite frankly, frightening.

Of course it is not that we are unaware that our previous lives often led us into the very dark depths our Lord had to rescue us from in the first place. We knew immediately that some of what constituted those lives had to go and we forsook some aspects of them right away. We also came to know later that other things had to go as well, and we did what we felt we could to cleanse ourselves, often crying out to God in prayer on a quite regular basis for help.

Now, in mid-life, some of us are becoming more and more concerned that certain behavior patterns show no signs of going away. At the same time we are haunted by the idea of “modern day idols”, possessions or activities that somehow approximate worshipping the ancient ones made of wood and stone. This tends to be re-enforced by frequent preaching on the subject that communicates to us that anything can become an idol in our lives. At times we might actually catch ourselves longing to live in a time in history when what constituted an idol was as clear as they were to the ancient Israelites. Now it seems like so many more “idolatry options” exist!

Of course, not everything from our past lives is something God is sternly demanding we get rid of. Some things, for instance, only need to be put in their proper perspective under the Lordship of Christ and become less important to us but not be wholly banished. Others can actually become part of our ministry like a hobby that we now use to spread the gospel in some way, as well as entertain us. It does take, however, a great deal of Spirit-given discernment to know what is “modifiable” and what is “non-negotiable”. I’m not talking here about the obviously sinful activities. It is easy, if we have any grasp of the Scriptures at all, to discern that things like pornography, drunkenness and cheating are never to be part of our lives after conversion. It is the “grayer” areas that most often trouble us. Should we own that car, should we collect those baseball cards, should we listen to secular music that isn’t obviously wicked?

When we do come to the incontrovertible conviction that something in one of those areas must be cut out of our lives it is then that we are faced with removing a habit, interest or possession that, truth be told, we really do enjoy. This is the hard thing to do. Perhaps the greatest help we can ask for from our Lord at such moments of decision (and during the time of actually putting the thing down) is for Him to simply show us that He has far more wonderful things in Mind to send us to fill the spaces left by those things we truly are being called to give up forever. What He intends is a deeply beneficial kind of exchange for the child He loves, an exchange that is actually part of our transformation into His likeness. Sometimes I think we may need a foretaste of the benefits that come to us as we allow holy sanctification to do its work. Certainly it is within God’s power to show us that what we truly give up for Him we give up, among other reasons, to make room for pearls of great price, things that will be pivotal in the blessed transformation of our character. We can pray for that foretaste.

Knowing that what we give up is going to make us more Christlike may not fully remove the sting of loss that comes from finally forsaking what has seemed like a comforting old friend in our lives. But, on the other hand, maybe it will and even if it doesn’t such knowledge can certainly make what is ultimately going to be a very good trade for us much less painful to bear.