My 8-year-old grandson will often say, “I am bored!”. He will then look at us waiting for us to satisfy his yearnings.
I can recall when I was that age saying the same thing. I don’t think I was really bored I was restless, unhappy, unhappy in a way I could not articulate. As adults most of us still have those tendencies and in our distracted and overactive culture it seems worse than ever before.
We also look to God to satisfy our yearnings or perhaps rubber stamp our desires. God is often treated like a genie by those that are shallow in their faith with no real relationship with their Lord. We are by and large consumers and of course the “Prosperity Gospel” plays to those wants.
We become bored, grumpy, unhappy, complaining, whining as we look at the greener grass somewhere else. What we usually do is seek what the world has to offer on social media, from Amazon, in pornography or alcohol or drugs. We seek these things in sin and not holiness. We know this yet in our sin natures we succumb to our besetting sins.
The Christian Way of Life is not an easy path. We know the road is narrow, we know we must die unto ourselves. Yes, there is much that works against us, and we will never achieve a sinless or near perfect life in our flesh. Our sanctification, our ongoing story of becoming more Christ-like is an obstacle course filled with long-suffering and adversity. Just as our Lord suffered, we must suffer.
But where do we begin?
Christ bought us through his incarnate life and blood. He stands now in Heaven and looks down upon you and I and knows our thoughts, our frustrations our sufferings. No thought or sin is hidden. We begin in Prayer (daily), in conversation:
Confessing our sins - 1 John 1:9 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When God says he will cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness he means all of those sins we have committed and forgotten about and yes there are many. And we cannot work off our sins by being good.
Christ is not an abstract concept that you just read about. Think of Him as a person in the next room who is keenly aware of all you think and do. You know he is there, but you can’t yet get to him physically, but he can hear your thoughts, your prayers. Christ is a person, in the flesh but the resurrected body like we will someday have. When you sin or act foolishly, HE knows all about it and HE is the only person that your thoughts, behavior and actions really matter to!
Repent: Our wills are broken so we gloss over or ignore our sinful trends in our thoughts and deeds. If we are indeed immersed in a relationship with our Lord, we will intentionally try to change our behavior. If we need help to alter a pattern of sin that’s what other Christians are for in community.
We do not appreciate how as the Faithful in Christ the Person of the Holy Spirit is at work within us all day and even at night as we sleep, Christ is also in us, at work.
Right now, is the time for all of us to recommit our lives to Christ, to put aside the distractions of this time and focus upon Our Lord and the Gospel, be servants, be humble.