Many of you that read my little stories here know me. And if you know me then you know that when I eat I tend to get something on me at some point. My husband says that if I'm not wearing it then I didn't enjoy it.
I have been thinking about that lately. I have been wondering how that applies to us as Christians. We go to church on Sundays and hear the word preached and we leave and forget what we heard. We may remember something here or there and think to ourselves "I should be doing that," or "My life might be a lot better off if I did some of those things that preacher said." We might even start doing some of it.
We can quote scriptures. Repeat sermons. Pray the loudest. Give the most in the offering plate.
A lot of times we beat our chest and stand in the synagogues and when people notice us we believe that we are the fairest of them all. When in all actuality we are just modern day Pharisees.
They knew all the rules. What they should do and shouldn't do. What they should and shouldn't say. But they had not let it change who they were. They were so blinded by the rules and regulations that they set for themselves that they couldn't even recognize the Messiah when He walked among them. They had so much religiosity about them but it was only skin deep.
The word that they had read. The laws that Moses had been passed down. The truths that they had been taught had made it into their mind but not into their hearts. It showed up on the outside. When anyone or everyone was looking they knew just what to do. They had more on them than in them.
They were trying to impress anyone that would look. But the one that was paying the most attention was not impressed.
And He is not impressed with us either when we do those same things. So many times we know how to talk the talk but we don't actually walk the walk.
The word of God tells us that we are not to be a pleaser of men but of God.
In Exodus it tells us that man looks on the outside but God looks on the heart.
So I ask you, are you wearing your religion or has the word of God actually penetrated your heart and is making a difference in your life?
The word of God tells us that by this you will know that you are my friend when you keep My commandments.
If we don't allow the word of God to get inside of us and change us, then we are like a person that went to the banqueting table and wiped the food all over the outside of our clothes and walked away to show everyone what we ate and that we had been to the banqueting table. The food has done us no good. No nutritional value was added to us at all.
It is just the same as if you went to church and left and spouted everything that you heard that day to everyone that you meet but you don't start doing what you heard, living it out, letting it into your heart, letting it change you. You don't grow into the person that God wants you to be. You have more on you than in you.
Are you wearing your religion or are you growing in the fullness of the Lord?
Jesus prepared the fish for His disciples while they were out fishing, when He called to them He didn't say come and spread this food I have prepared for you all over yourselves so that you can say "Look, Jesus made breakfast for us." No! Jesus clearly told them "Come and EAT!"
Jesus, when preaching to a bunch of people asked the question, "What good does it do a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?" I am asking you what good is it for you to go to church and not let the things that you are learning change you?
The bible tells us our good deeds are as filthy rags. I wonder, if we are filthy, is it from all the spiritual food we are wearing?
I pray that you would start to feast on the word of God and allow it's goodness to fill you. I pray that you would have a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. I pray that you would be full to overflowing.
I pray that you would start to get more in you than on you.
That you would desire the word of God like a newborn desires mothers milk, like a working man desires an evening meal, like a birthday boy desires cake and ice cream. That you would yearn for more of the word in your life so much so that you could not get enough.
I know so many of us are on a diet. We are trying to lose a few pounds. But this is one area of our lives that we can not afford to become anemic in.
Psalm 34:8 tells us to TASTE and see the Lord is good. So I beg you to feast at the banqueting table He prepares for you. Taste and see the Lord is good. Do not get more on you than in you.
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