What Does Your Christianity Look Like?

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22)

Do you know the definition of insanity?

When something isn't working, continuing to do the same old thing, the same old way; expecting new and different and better results.

I've been guilty of that kind of insanity more times than I care to admit.

How about you? 

What's not working in your life?

Your marriage? Your job? Your trying to lose weight? Your trying to find a job?

Or, if you're like most people, maybe you just need some peace.

Well, if what you've been doing up to this point is not working—is not producing good results; then stop. 

They say every picture is worth a thousand words.

Look closely at the man stuck on the child's merry-go-round in the photo above. 

Symbolically, does that picture represent you now, or at some time in your life? When things in your life were spinning out of control? But you just didn't know how to jump off? Maybe things were going so fast you were afraid to jump?

Don't feel bad. 

Whether we'll admit it or not, we've all been there. We've all have had times when something in our life was spinning out of control and we just didn't know how to fix it. 

Or... maybe we just weren't willing to change. 

I know what's not working well in my life right now. And I know why it's not working, and I've been talking to God about that this week, thank you very much. 

And although I'm hearing God's word on what I need to change, I'm not doing a very good job of being a doer of the word.

But I want to, desperately need to, change.

What about you?

This morning I asked God for His wisdom and revelation. "God, what would You have me do?" What I heard in my heart was:

"Stop doing what's not working."

Patterns.

What are my behavior patterns? What is my daily routine? In how I interact with God? With my wife? With friends? In how I go about looking for a job? With what I choose to eat? With my exercise, or lack of? 

One thing I've noticed that is very consistent with most people I've talked to over the years about the mutual challenges in our lives:

We repeat the same things over, and over, and over again.

Even as I write this, certain people come to mind that I used to spend much more time with, and now it makes me wonder, "Did they get tired of hanging around me because I kept repeating, kept complaining about the same things over and over in our conversations?"

Ugh!  Convicted.

Maybe they didn't want to enable me by letting me continue to be only a hearer—just talking about what I should do, without ever being willing to make the change and actually do it.

Ouch.

Truth is good... but it can be very painful.

Gotta be honest... I also get weary of listening to people I know, who, for years, over and over again, have been complaining about, talking about, but never actually doing anything about, the same old issues in their lives.  

I mean, it's not like they don't know what to do. They've been "hearers of the word" a hundred times.

The problem is... they're just not doing it.

James teaches that those of us who hear the word, but do not do it are: "deceiving ourselves."

Self-deceived.

That's an extremely painful indictment.

So, the $64,000 question is, what am I going to do about it?

What are you going to do about it?

This I know... God never calls us to do anything that He will not empower us to do, once we take the step of faith to be obedient to His word. Knowing that, you must ask Him for strength to do what He is telling you to do. 

"You receive not because you ask not."

So, all that's stopping you then, is you.

If your spouse seems to be drifting away from you, not wanting to spend as much time with you as they once did, stop blaming it on them, and start asking God to show you what you are doing that is causing the division.  

Maybe it's because you are so busy talking at them, never caring enough to take the time to listen, with the intent to understand them.

Men, have you asked God to give you wisdom and sensitivity to dwell with your wife with understanding, helping you to know and understand her more deeply and intimately as a woman? As a person? Or, do you trample your wife's feelings like a blind bull in a china shop? Do you sit around the house when you should be trying harder to get a job, and then wonder why your wife doesn't seem to have much respect for you?

Ladies, because you stopped caring for yourself, and consequently, you now weigh twice as much as you did on your wedding day, are you bitter that your unloving husband no longer feels as attracted to you as he once did? Do you nag him constantly about being a better spiritual leader of the home, but you refuse to submit to the position of authority that God has given to him?

Love prefers the needs of the other, above our own needs. 

I once heard a wise man say: 

"If your Christianity doesn't work at home—it won't work anywhere else."

What does the love of Christ look like in how you manifest it in your own home?  At your job? In line at the grocery store?

Jesus said, (to all Christian men and women alike): 

"A new commandment I give to you—that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 13:34)

What does your Christianity look like?

We who are followers of Christ are quite skilled at being hearers of the word.

The question I believe God is asking us all today is:

     —"Are you being a doer of the word?"

God is Love and Love Never Fails.