Thursday, October 5, 2017

UP ALL THE TIME


I saw this posted on Facebook this morning.  In my opinion this is one of the most misleading and, yes, even foolish quotes I’ve ever heard.  The person who posted it is a friend of mine and I love her, but I think she didn’t really get the full impact.  Again in my opinion, this is just another example of how easily we Christians are deceived.  I know a lot of the people who hit the “like” button and I just simply believe they took the post at face value, maybe just skimmed through it and it sounded good, and didn’t really concentrate on it.  At first glance to some, this seems like a great read.  For me it wasn’t.

"We shouldn't be so up and down. There ought to be consistency. We should be the same all the time, because if we're walking with Jesus, He's 'the same yesterday, today, and forever' (Hebrews 13:8). If we're up sometimes and down other times, it's because sometimes we're trusting Jesus and other times we're walking in our own flesh. WE OUGHT TO BE SUPERNATURALLY NATURAL. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is in us at all times (Ephesians 1:19-20). It never fluctuates." ~ Andrew Wommack "Living in God's Best"

Is there a Christian on earth that doesn’t on occasion walk in the flesh?  How about those of us who go for that second piece of cake when we know we shouldn’t?  How about those who give in to premarital or extramarital sex?  And, yes, that happens to some Christians.  They may not be very strong Christians but they’re Christians nonetheless.  All of us give in to temptation, which Jesus never did.  Mr. Wommack is asking me to BE Jesus, not be LIKE Jesus.  There’s a great difference.

And speaking of Jesus, how about Him?  He cried when he was at the tomb of Lazarus…and He knew He was going to raise him!  Doesn’t sound like a very “up” moment.  How about when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane?  That was not a very “up” moment for Him.  He was grieving.  How can you grieve to the point of sweating drops of blood and be “up” at the same time?  If it was possible for anyone, it would have been possible for Him, but it doesn't appear that way when you read this account in the Bible.  Probably not an “up” moment for Him.

And what about being “supernaturally natural?”  It is not natural…or even human…for someone to be “up” all the time.  Even a Christian.  I guarantee you that if you know someone who is “up” every time you see them, they’re having a “down” moment sometimes when they’re alone.  One of our emotions is sadness.  Am I to believe that there is a Christian who has never been sad?

Anyway, here is my response to her post.  Oddly, one of the people who first made a positive comment on the post hit the “like” button on my response.  Maybe my response made her reread the post and come to a different conclusion.

However, we are humans and this is just not going to happen. A person going through something devastating (divorce, sickness, etc.) is going to have a down moment or two although they know Jesus hasn’t left them. Jesus also asked us to be perfect as He is perfect and holy as He is Holy but we all know that’s not going to happen on this earth. I appreciate the thought but it is a crushing burden for anyone to expect that of me. And, really, if you know me you know I’m usually “up” but it’s just not that way every moment of every day. I wish it were, but Jesus is always there in those moments.

Soooo…what do you think?

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