On the drive home, I ended up apologising profusely – and unexpectedly – to God. Out of nowhere this instinctive remorse came flooding out, "I'm sorry, Lord, for skipping Life Group! I'm so, so sorry, because I know that I would never gotten up to all that rubbish that I did if I had been filling myself up with You more often!"
And only once the words had left my mouth did I realise how true they were.
James Murray, a youth pastor from C3 Church in Australia, was the guest speaker at our church conference recently. I remember him saying in one of the sessions that sometimes we attempt giving God our lives, but we hold on to certain areas that we either don't want to give up or that we don't trust God to handle it as well as we might (we can really be dim sometimes). We wonder why particular areas of our lives are continually hampered by sin that we can't seem to shake off.
What really stood out to me – now listen carefully – is what he said next:
"Sin will have no way of filling your life if it's already filled with God. That's why it is so important to be filling yourself constantly through prayer, church, reading God's Word and meeting up with other Christians."
Okay, that is slightly paraphrased, but the gist is spot on.
And I can tell you from first-hand experience how true it is. There will be no room for sin in your life if all the space is taken up by the things of God. I can also now tell how true the opposite is: how quickly sin pervades your life when you stop seeking the right things.
Believe me, the struggle and the guilt and the heartache of having to overcome that (all over again), is not worth a few days' worth of rebellion.
Draw near to God – every day – and He will draw near to you.
That's a promise. From Him in James 4:8. And unlike us, He always keeps His promises.
I had meant to tell you about our discussion in that phenomenal Life Group session and here this post has turned out totally different. Guess I'll have to right another one. Watch this space.
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