When Things Don't Match Up

I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land…..and they said to him, “How could you do this?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he told them. Jonah 1:9,10 (New American Standard Bible)

Let the world know that you are a Christian and they will expect your actions to match what you say. When there is a big difference between what we say and what we do, people will ask us the same question these men asked Jonah, “How could you do this?” It did not make sense to them how Jonah could SAY he feared the LORD and yet BE fleeing from His presence. His words and his actions were polar worlds apart from each other…they were incongruent and dissimilar. This kind of inconsistent living is easy to spot.

The harder cases are those who externally display the life of a Christian but internally their world is falling apart. They have the actions down pat, but their heart is far removed from God. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day come to mind. That is why Jesus always directed the conversation back to their motives, their thoughts, their heart. He called them white-washed sepulchers (graves). In other words, their outward show was beautifully decorated but inwardly there was death and decay. Others may not have been able to detect the contradictory life but Jesus could. God was not fooled! His desire was to help them see the truth about their spiritual condition and allow Him to transform them.

For me, it was having God bring me to the point where I was confronted with my core beliefs of who God was and what my relationship was like with Him. I had the outward things down pat….church attendance, involvement in spiritual activities, sporadic conversations with believers that sounded good. I had my sterling moments as a believer but in the privacy of my own life I carried a secret. I had a wrong view of God that kept me at arms length from Him. I knew Jesus as my Savior but failed to relate with Him on a deep, personal level. My mental assent of God was not sustaining my heart. It was when I finally admitted my own emptiness that I made room for God to fill me with Himself. He taught me how to say, “God, I need You!” His desire has always been that my internal relationship with Him matches my external show. I love the change!

Father, You are remaking me and I marvel at Your work! Amen.

Make It Real - Mark Lowry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-B3IeE9K58

Getting into God's Word and letting God's Word get into me one truth at a time.