Reflector

A few years ago, any statement which sounded a bit wrong doctrinally will irk me tremendously. Being a christian from a young age, having been to many churches, having attended sunday school, and having siblings and relatives who would make remarks or talk about certain doggy doctrines, I thought I knew what was right and what was wrong. I thought that everything in the world ought to be black and white. I thought. But that was the past.

Doctrines and theories can give you an idea about what kind of morals to have, what kind of behaviour is correct and what is not. They give a picture of how everything functions in the world. But I realise now that doctrines and theories can only take you so far. Even with all the doctrines in the world, it cannot save you.

When people debate about the nitty-gritty details in the bible or about ideas and schools of thought, a lot of times, it doesn’t help them to love God more or to know Him in a deeper way. Why do people do that? Why did I use to do that? Come to think of it, I think I just wanted to be right. And partly, it’s also out of fear of doing something wrong. Fearfulness. But then, the bible says that everything done out of fear and not of faith, doesn’t please God. 

A walk with God is more than just debates about what is theoretically sound. Doctrines don’t give you a relationship with God. And having a relationship with our Creator is really what christianity is all about, and it’s what we’re made for in the first place.

I got over the stage when I seriously found fault with the smallest of things. The way things were done in church, the things people said, and many other things. But thank God He was so patient with me and allowed me to see things in a different light over time. Thank God He kept me from leaving my church for another, even though it was soooooo hard to hang on. You can’t imagine. And I can’t remember a lot of it already haha. But thank God for His grace. I think if I had left, I wouldn’t have known what I missed (which would have been a lot hahaha), and I’d have lost hope of a breakthrough.

In everything that we do, God looks at our heart. Our motivation for doing things. Our attitude.

And what really matters is our personal relationship with God. For me, it’s my personal relationship with Him. For you, it’s yours. A verse which truly spoke to me was John 21:20-22.

John 21:20-22 says “Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?”
Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

A lot of times, we’re so caught up about judging other people and criticizing that we overlook our own relationship with God. Then that’s when we stagnate, because we channel all our effort into criticizing and forget that there’re still areas in our lives which we need to change. There is NEVER a point in time where we can say, “There’s no need for me to change anymore, the problem lies with you.” Because if we do that, we miss the point entirely. There is ALWAYS some area in our lives, an attitude, a habit, a dream, which we need to surrender to God. And in this walk with Him, if we’re not lukewarm and stagnant, we should find ourselves surrendering more and more of ourselves to Him.

When we focus on the negative, we will fail to see the positive. I know that well haha.

God is constantly looking for ways to mould our character. But He’ll only touch what we allow Him to. From the beginning of time, the same old things prevent Him from changing us, and prevent us from drawing near to Him. They are Pride and Rebellion. There’s still a lot of pride and rebellion which I need to deal with, and I think, it’s a problem a lot, if not all, face. Look at the great men and women of God, and you’ll be able to see brokenness, and surrender. The more we surrender to God, the more He can use us.

And something my CIC bible study teacher, Marie, said today was like just…wow. She said, “When people meet you, wouldn’t it be great if even before you actually tell them you’re a christian, they can say ‘wow I see Jesus in you’.” Man…that’ll be so cool.