Spark the fire

Have you ever read any Christian inspired books? I myself have read quite a few with some of the authors being David Platt, C.S. Lewis, Andy Stanley, and Francis Chan. After putting down a book like Crazy Love or Radical, I usually feel fired up and ready to impact the nations with the love and power of Christ in me. But give it a few weeks and that fire I once felt seems to fizzle out. Why is that?

Two of the main reasons that generally cause the fire to burn out in me are:

1.  Lacking time in God’s Word and inauthentic prayer
2. Not putting knowledge gained into practice

God’s Word and Prayer

There are stretches in life where I find myself putting God on the sidelines. I tell myself that I am too busy with schoolwork, I get tired at night and won’t be able to give God my full attention, or I think to myself that it’s ok not to get in the Word because I just finished reading a great Christian inspired book. At those moments in time when I decide to put God on the sideline, I don’t understand that it directly affects the next moment when I am too busy or too tired at night: it becomes easier for me to continue playing on the court while God continues to sits on the bench. This generally leads to me falling further into sin and being more stressed out with the weight of the world on my shoulders. But when I spend quality time with the Lord, I find that I am generally anxiety free and driven to live out His purpose for my life.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2).

By spending time in God’s Word and praying from your heart instead of your mind (you know, that prayer you have memorized so you can be done praying as quickly as possible), God will renew your thoughts. He will give you the ability to decipher His will for your life, and you will be continually transformed by the Lord—the fire won’t fizzle out. By letting God on the court, not only will you not have to carry the weight of the team all on your shoulders, but He will lead you to victory.

Not Putting Knowledge into Practice

How many times have you heard ‘Love thy neighbor’ or ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’? If you have heard it an eighth of the times I have then you have heard it a lot. Yet do we actually obey these? On a spring break trip to El Salvador, I found myself spending time with murderers and criminals. It was cool to be with a group of people I once thought I would never dare be in company with, but that made me confront the fact that I once thought, and still am, uncomfortable with the idea of actually loving and serving someone who has killed multiple people; in these moments I forget the phrase ‘Love thy neighbor’.

 “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:23-25)

This is kind of a ridiculous question, but can you imagine not knowing what you look like? With iPods, YouTube, and the world revolving around the idea of You, how could one not know what they look like? That is the idea of James’ metaphor: not putting the knowledge gained from the Word into practice is like forgetting who you are.  The person who can’t imagine himself loving a gang member, or doesn’t feel like its ‘their job’ to share the gospel with someone who hasn’t heard of Christ is forgetting who they are: a servant and child of God. When we act in obedience towards God in these ways, we will be blessed by God. How can we not be fired up when we are being blessed by the Lord?!

Today was fun, but comparatively (to the other days) pretty uneventful. Other than eating Dim Sum in the morning, traveling back to Shenzhen, and going to Starbucks, things were pretty low key. Tomorrow I will be taking a bus ride to Hong Kong, where I will be touring around for 2 days. Be ready for some cool pictures ;)

-Alex