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Growing up, my attention was completely focused on sports, and I was always at the YMCA training for football and basketball. One day, I met a girl that trained just as hard as I did. She was ranked in the state for tennis, and was also extremely beautiful. I ended up getting her number, and she became my first “official” girlfriend. Her name was Hillary.
Hillary and I met during my sophomore year in high school; she was a senior. She was headed off to college the following year, so the majority of our relationship consisted of her being out of town in college, while I was in the eleventh grade in high school.
It never dawned on me how special it was to have a college girlfriend while I was still in high school. To be completely honest, I never really valued the relationship nor her commitment to being faithful to me from hours away while being surrounded by other college students. My lack of maturity along with the major distance between us became a problem in our relationship.
As I was constantly surrounded by women my age, I began to develop feelings for someone in my class. I started texting this new girl every day, and it wasn’t long before I had to confess to Hillary that I had feelings for someone else. Her response was, “I’ve turned down so many college guys for you, and you’ve embarrassed and humiliated me! I will never date you again.”
It wasn’t long before I realized that I had made a terrible mistake and for the next year, I tried everything I could to win her back. I offered her multiple gifts, bought flowers, and made her a workout plan. I even told her I would get her a ring using my parents’ money. After months and months of trying to win her back, I had convinced myself that I was “different.” Her response, however, never changed. Every time I mentioned what I would do to show her my loyalty, her response was — “Oh really, now?”
As sad of a story as this is, I couldn’t help but draw a comparison with something I experienced a few weeks ago. I had spent hours trying to convince someone to submit every area of their lives to God. I tried multiple times to explain that you can’t use the title, “Christian” and continue to do whatever you want. I told them that coming to Christ means laying our life down, completely, because that is truly what He expects.
"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." Romans 12:1-2 MSG
After hours and hours of talking, the person says, “This seems very difficult. I have to think about it.” - Which I totally agree with, because actually being a follower of Christ takes time and careful consideration before making the decision.
The Cost of Discipleship: "Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’" - Luke 14:25-30 ESV
To my surprise, I saw this same person jumping, running and dancing during a worship service. I couldn’t help but think — “Oh really, now?”
"The Lord said, “These people show respect to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. Their worship of Me is worth nothing. They teach rules that men have made." - Isaiah 29:13 NLV
The truth is, Hillary never believed any of my words because my actions had spoken so differently for a long period of time. I have come to realize that we do the same thing with Jesus. We feel the need to throw ourselves down in a crowded worship service, screaming and crying because we are overcompensating for the entire week that we haven’t thought about Him. A majority of the “best” worshippers don’t even read their Bibles consistently during the week.
Isn’t it amazing that in the Bible your loyalty and devotion to God was proven through an extreme lifestyle change, but today, love for God can be expressed through jumping, crying, and singing?
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." - Romans 12:1 NIV
No matter how much we sweat and fall during worship on Sunday, God is looking at the sacrifices made and commitment shown on Monday through Saturday, or a lack thereof. If your praise and worship on Sunday doesn’t correlate with the sacrifice and devotion to God Monday through Saturday … I’ve never lived in Houston, but I believe there is a problem.
Thus a question arises — Do we fall on the floor during worship because we're overcompensating for our lack of love and devotion to God during the week? Or does a true worshiper of God not feel the need to show it with their mouths and hands because their lives speak for themselves?
I don't recall many, if any, scriptures of the disciples falling or bowing at the feet of Jesus but their love and devotion was shown through many of them dying a similar death as Jesus. In the bible, it seems as though actions spoke louder than words, and today, this statement is still true.
"But a time is coming and is already here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit [from the heart, the inner self] and in truth; for the Father seeks such people to be His worshipers. God is spirit [the Source of life, yet invisible to mankind], and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” - John 4:23-24 AMP
Question of the day: How does God feel about your worship that doesn’t include sacrifice and life change?
"You hypocrites (play-actors, pretenders), rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me,For they teach as doctrines the precepts of men.’” - Matthew 15:7-9 AMP