By: Abi
I’ve been to the dentist this week. And with my regular planned check-up comes my usual panic: “Have I been brushing well? Was it often enough? I really should floss more. I hope the dentist can’t tell. I hope I don’t need any treatment. I really should be doing better.”
Anyone else experience this? You know what you should be doing. You’re told time and time again. It doesn’t sound too complicated. You come away with the resolve that this time, you’ll do it.
And maybe you manage it. For a month, or a week, or a few days… But then, slowly, for whatever reason, you slip back into your old habits.
Until the next check-up comes around. And you just hope, again, the dentist won’t notice you didn’t do it all along. Again.
Our relationship with God can be a bit like that. If you’ve grown up in church, or been a Christian for long enough, hearing a message on reading your Bible, or having a regular prayer life, or attending church, won’t come as a surprise to you. Or perhaps you’ve heard God speak to you about fasting or other spiritual disciplines. Or you’ve read a great book on discipleship groups and accountability culture. Whatever it is, you know what you are “supposed to do.”
Now, with God, there is no “fake it until you make it.” He knows the difference. He sees it all. Yet He doesn’t call you in for a check-up, with a long list of “have you done” and “where’s your progress.”
God wants what’s best for you because He loves you, and He knows your full potential: to be in right relationship with Him and to be becoming more like Jesus every day.
Just like your dentist, He wants you to do all the right things because it’s good for you. But unlike your dentist, He gets joy from it too, and He loves when we spend time with Him—when we read the Bible and learn who He is and His true character, when we sing His praises and recognize Him as worthy of glory, when we spend time in relationship with Him, praying and listening, when we seek to unify with other members of the body, to disciple and be discipled, to be accountable to, and hold accountable, our brothers and sisters. And when the outpouring is a church that shares the good news of the gospel with boldness and courage…
So today, I’m inviting you to have your check-up with God. Think about the great things He would love for you to be doing, that are good for you and for your relationship with Him. And come away with resolve to “do the stuff” this time, maybe for a day, a week, a month… and rest easy in the grace that says He loves you just the same whether you’ve been sticking to it or not.
And maybe remember to floss.
For Your Reading:
Hebrews 11:6
“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”Ephesians 2:8-9
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”