Walking With Christ

What’s holding you back?

Let’s talk about barriers to real change. The last thing our enemy wants is for us to change. Next on his list of to-dos is to slow us down or stop us from making more progress in our path to becoming like Christ. He knows that he may not prevent us from being saved, but if he can stop us from growing stronger in the Lord then the fruit that would have grown through us is diminished. Ignorance, inexperience, and character flaws born and strengthened through these two, are the largest sources of weaknesses that the enemy can attack. This is a big subject with a lot of room for discussion.

Sin and Temptation
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.(ESV)

Sin and temptation is universal so it’s pretty easy to say that this is why people don’t change. It’s not quite that simple, though. The simple truth is that every temptation includes a means of escape. The hard part is often choosing that path instead of the self-gratifying one. True, this is a drastic oversimplification of the problem and the solution, but, as I’m finding with my own temptations, the first “no” is the hardest one. It gets easier with time. After a while it becomes habit. The two hardest steps to any journey is the first and last ones. The first one has all the weight of anticipation and expectation. The last one has the weight of experience and exhaustion but is often fueled only by the excitement of being done. The Christian walk has only one destination, but that isn’t for this life. The journey of change, whether we realize it or not, started the moment we were conceived. The process continues until we are no more. Even after we “vacate the temple” so to speak, our bodies are returned to the very dust that will be used to form the next generation. Change is constant. It’s when we come to rest and try to stop or slow down the rate of change that we start to have problems. The lie is that we can control the rate of change. The truth is that we can’t control the rate of change, but we can influence what changes.

Fear/Anxiety
Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.(ESV)

Overcoming fear involves trusting in God’s presence, strength, and support. “I am with you”, “I am your God”, ”I will strengthen you”, “I will help you”, and “I will uphold you” should be some of the most encouraging statements in the entire bible for those who understand exactly who said those things. The very same being that spoke everything into existence then knelt down in that dirt to form Adam, and through Adam us, with His own hands has said He will help us. There is absolutely nothing that can stand against God’s will. If He makes a promise, it will be kept. He will bring us back to life to keep the promises He has made to us if that is what it takes. He is faithful and will never fail. In the list of truly impossible things, that might be number one or two on the list.

Doubt (another name for fear)
James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.(ESV)

This verse encourages believers to ask in faith, highlighting the instability that doubt can bring. Doubt is a poison. It’s not quite as strong as fear, because fear is based on what is believed. Fear says that something bad will happen. Doubt says that something good may not happen. Doubt is the little annoying cousin to fear. Fear is irrational in many cases, but doubt is far more difficult to logically prove against. I’m afraid that an army of penguins with lasers on their heads will march through and destroy everything. Most people would agree that this is irrational. I’m not certain that investing in stocks is a good idea because the market may crash. This doubt is harder to argue against since the market has crashed before and it’s proven to be a possibility.

Comfort and Complacency
Philippians 3:13-14 (13)Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, (14)I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.(ESV)

Moving beyond comfort zones requires focusing on the future and God’s higher calling rather than past achievements or current comforts. The enemy wants us to remain in our nice, safe, and comfortable cages. It’s a lot easier to hide in a comfortable place than it is to risk everything for an unknown reason reward. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is a proverb that dates back to a book by John Capgrave in the fifteenth century called “The Life of St. Katharin of Alexandria”. This line of thinking is practical in the sense that having something is better than having nothing. The problem is that every step away from the baseline of nothing involves an ever increasing amount of risk. The vast majority of people are fairly risk adverse then wonder how or why they don’t have more. We can read about the parable of the talents (money) in Matthew 25:14-30 to know what God feels about complacency. What this parable doesn’t emphasize is that the master would have been more pleased with a servant who lost money than he was with the one who did nothing, provided that the loss wasn’t caused by foolishness or waste. The point is that the two who profited actually tried while the other did nothing out of the fear of losing what they had.

Discouragement (doubt before it takes root)
2 Corinthians 4:16-17 (16)So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. (17)For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.(ESV)

This passage offers perspective on temporary struggles, encouraging believers to focus on eternal rewards and the continual renewal in Christ. Discouragement is the seed of doubt that hasn’t grown roots yet. We all get discouraged. It’s going to happen to us all. How we respond to those seeds will determine what fruit grows in the future. If we water the seeds of doubt then fear will be the fruit we bear later. It’s a bitter fruit that brings destruction. If we which the seeds of doubt away and throw them to the birds then all we are left with is the seeds that will produce good fruit when the time is right. Here’s a thing to think about. When a farmer plants seeds it takes days, weeks, or even months to see the first results. It takes even longer to see the actual fruit. If the farmer plows up their field the day after just because it didn’t rain when they hoped it would then there will be no harvest at all.

Lack of Faith
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.(ESV)

This emphasizes the necessity of faith in approaching God and the assurance that those who earnestly seek Him will find reward. Finding Him IS the reward for faith. Everything else is just a fringe benefit that comes with that faith through the relationship that is formed. Faith has two measures. Size and duration. Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed could move a mountain. With a large enough amount of faith, we could simply tell the mountain to move and it would. With the faith that endures all things, we would move the mountain one pebble at a time knowing that we would live long enough to see the job done. Peter had the amount of faith needed to walk on water, but his faith did not endure beyond the time it took for him to look around. He began to sink when he took his eyes off of Jesus.

Worldly Distractions
Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.(ESV)

The enemy loves to distract us with things of this world. The world loves to make things more complex in the name of making things easier. I’m not saying that we should all live in a communal village and do nothing but plant crops and praise God. This verse doesn’t say that we shouldn’t partake in worldly things. It just says that we need to seek Him first and let that set the priority for everything else. This is a lesson in priorities more than anything else. If our priorities are correct and we give our all to those priorities then we are guaranteed to see the rewards of that life. This doesn’t mean that we have to cut everything out of our lives, but rather, we need to recognize the order of priorities and take care of the most important ones first. As we get better at taking care of those higher priorities then we will discover, quickly I might add, that we will find that we have more time to add things to the list.