Personal Revival

It’s funny how when things are going well the devil is not far behind, waiting to use our successes for his twisted torment and distorted sense of reality.  Pride is too easily snuck through the cracks of happiness and is manipulated for his gain.

Coasting through life I was newly engaged to a beautiful godly woman, the job I had wanted for the past three years had finally contacted me, and I was making more money; everything seemed to have fallen into place.  Slowly and steadily though, I started to implode into a self-centered, materialistic slave.  I turned my back on the church financially by withholding my tithe, talking myself instead to needing the next coolest gadget or fancy watch.  Money somehow became my master, determining who I was and what I wanted.  Happy you may say, but only on the surface.  Material things only last so long before they lose their captivation and glamour. 

I soon found myself empty and sullen.  I felt distant from the church not only because I was withholding my tithe, but I had also stopped serving, thinking it was below me, that I was somehow too busy to do that kind of work.  Where did these thoughts come from and how did they appear so quickly?

I realized that if you’re not growing towards a deeper relationship with Him, you’re growing away from Him, falling away from his presence and spiraling out of control into self-centeredness.  It’s scary to think that it can happen so easily.  Comfort I’ve come to realize, is a Christian’s most dangerous enemy, to put it succinctly, complacency kills.

Once I knew what was happening, I was scared.  I needed forgiveness and a personal revival.  I named my demons and asked Jesus to take them from me.  I took the time to volunteer at church and began to feel apart of the community again.  God had conquered and I was now free again to build my relationship with Christ. 

As my foundation and savior, Christ Jesus keeps the important things in my life to the forefront.  His love and God’s grace fill me with the joy only a life living for Him can have.  It’s a joy that permeates through the good and the bad times.  

Cross from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul

The cross pictured here is from the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.  Once a thriving Eastern Orthodox Cathedral, it was converted to a mosque in 1453 when the city was taken over by the Ottoman Turks.  Many of the christian symbols were taken down or destroyed.  The cross, like our faith, was chiseled at and broken, but as you can see, even a hammer cannot destroy the faith! As James Stewart wrote, "He (Jesus) did not conquer in spite of the dark mystery of evil.  He conquered through it."  We are to conquer through the evil and dark powers that attack and ensnare us and return to the living water.