"You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God."
Social acceptance, prestige, or wealth are all described by James as friends of the world. Divided loyalty toward God is like adultery against one's spouse.James 4:4[a]
When we say "yes" to God, we find ourselves ushered into a strange and painful reality. Our defiance and self-reliance has kept us separated from our creator. The very one who breathed life into us and planned our life while we were being formed in our mother's womb.
What begins to transpire has been described as Holy Surgery. We were born into a sinful and fallen world as children of a sin nature. Relying on our own understanding of the things we see, taste, touch, and smell. We gather information from those who have been charged with caring for us, and as we grow older, we begin to develop "common sense." I believe this is the most stifling quality to the Good News of Christ we possess. Everything we do in our life is governed by our own framework of "common sense."
Since the beginning of time, man has been searching for the throne of God. We can't find it on our own, so we resolve to create a throne room in our minds or our homes, and we worship the god of us.
When you say the words of Isaiah, "here am I, send me" to God, you've given Him permission to check you into hospital. You are wheeled into surgery and He begins to remove everything that was never supposed to be there.
The greatest misconception of the work of God, is that He must change my surroundings and environment so that I can not be tempted to fall away. Although, that's not a bad idea, it never really deals with the core issue, YOU.
God wants to have a relationship with you, but to do that He needs your trust. Every lesson of self-reliance you have ever learned must be cut out of you and replaced with dependence on Him. God will never force Himself on you, or strap you on the surgeon's table, or even knock you out so that you feel no pain. In other words, this process could last a lifetime. Oh yeah, did I mention it was going to hurt?
John Piper writes that pain is not for nothing, but that it is producing a peculiar glory in us. Oswald Chambers writes, through pain and circumstance is the only way we build character.
As a man, I tend to always seek the affirmation of others. This helps to galvanize my way of thinking. God has been clear in His desire to severe that way of thinking.
If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.
Once you take a step of faith in the direction of Jesus Christ, the next thing you will face is the people who should understand you the best. This is where it gets REALLY hard. You've spent a lifetime leaning on the knowledge and experience of these relationships. James makes it very clear what divided loyalties will produce, you will become an enemy of God.Luke 14:26(b)
One of the biggest blows to our self-help mentality, is that the pain we experience is not FOR you. When you accepted Christ as your Savior and Lord, you are presented before God blameless and righteous.
" I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me...."
So then why must we experience so much trouble?Gal 2:20a(c)
Your choices and behavior influence everyone who is in contact with you. If your life looked like anything less than the redemptive life of Christ, then the world would never recognize their need for Him.
So how do we reflect Christ to the world?
When we say "yes" to Christ, we enter in to the "undeserved privilege" of the new covenant. Our everyday life is transformed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Which reminds me of the old hymn:
