Don't Sell Yourself Short

C.S. Lewis once said "The man who is most effective in this world is the man who is the most focused on the next."

How true a statement, yet I think we have missed that path in many ways. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that people aren't focused on Heaven, and if you are focused on Heaven, I commend you.

I am only trying to make the point, that for many of us, myself often included, we have allowed our focus to be pulled down to this world. When we think of being pulled down by the world, our brains automatically think of sin. We think of the things in the world that want to pull us away from God. What we rarely think of are the things that are good, but not intended to be our focus and ultimate goal.

I find myself often getting caught up in serving, and all of the things that our Christian culture has around us today. Serving isn't bad, Bible studies aren't bad, reading isn't bad. However when we replace our goal of being face to face with Jesus with those things, they can become idols just like anything else. When our goal is to have a good ministry, or to read the next Christian book, we sell ourselves short.

God has offered us Himself, and not just from a distance, but in an up close and personal way. We can approach the throne of grace boldly.

Why should we trade God for anything of this world, even the aspects of life that pertain to His Kingdom.

When our focus shifts from Christ, to the world around us, we burn out. We live in a dying and hopeless world. Christ is the only hope for the world around us. If our focus isn't on Him, this world will steal our hope.

You might be asking the question, "Don't we still need to be concerned with those things?"

Yes, we do need to be concerned with them. Our ministries, the areas that we serve God in, and the different things that we do (that aren't sin) are still good things to do.

The issue isn't as much of what we are doing, as where our focus is. When our focus is on this world, it breaks us down. When our focus is on Christ, He compels us to serve, and His power enables us to serve excellently.

1 Corinthians 13 says that now we see dimly, but then it will be face to face. We will be united with God, and worship the One who gave it all for us. That is our hope and goal. Don't settle for a goal that this world can satisfy.

THE FIGHT

Have you ever noticed that every single movie has some kind of conflict? There is always something that has to be overcome, a problem that must be solved. You would think with all of the problems in life, we would want to be entertained by something that doesn't have any conflict, but when a TV show or movie comes out without conflict, it crashes and burns because it doesn't hold our interest.

The more I think about it, we have been created with conflict in our hearts and minds. This is a Biblical concept as well. Think of all the verses about spiritual warfare, or how Satan is a prowling lion seeking whom he may devour. It's funny, none of those verses attempt to convince us of the conflict. Their aim is to prepare us for the conflict.

High up on the list of my favorite movies is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm going to nerd out a bit, so hang in there with me.

In Lord of the Rings, this hobbit named Frodo kind of stumbles upon a ring of power, and it turns out that said ring contains all the power of all evil. Frodo and 8 companions set out to destroy the ring in the fires of Mount Doom. It takes them three movies to get there, and they face unmeasurable difficulties. Literally everything in their entire world is set against them. Their chances are beyond slim. Throughout all of the movies, you see them press through, and even though the darkness around them seems to never let them through, you know that in the end they will destroy the ring. The trilogy ends with the ring being destroyed, and good triumphing over evil.

Even though there are few doubts that they will complete their quest, this story manages to inspire such hope. This hope doesn't come from a happy little trip without difficulty, but from a journey that seemed impossible. The conflict is more than they could ever bear, but they don't give up.

We are in such a conflict today. Whichever aspect you look at it from, the people around us that we struggle with, the sins that seem to ensnare us, or the spiritual battle that we know we are in, we are in such conflict that it should blow our minds.

However, Jesus Christ has already won the fight. When He died on the cross and rose again on the third day, He defeated death. He defeated Satan, and He robbed sin of all its power over us.

If you're a Christian, you are on the winning side. Satan is going down swinging, but God has the victory by a long shot.

Being in conflict gets tiring, it gets hard. There are always going to be moments where it seems impossible, and you want to give up. Don't forget that the God we serve, the God who we have an intimate relationship with, He has already taken the victory. Live in that victory.

I'll leave you with a few words from Lord of the Rings. Frodo is at the point of giving up, and Samwise encourages him with these words.

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. Because they were holding on to something... There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."