Going Through the Motions

2 Timothy 3:4-5 People will turn against their friends. They will do foolish things without thinking and will be so proud of themselves. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. They will go on pretending to be devoted to God, but they will refuse to let that “devotion” change the way they live. Stay away from these people!

At some point, when you’ve been living your life for Christ, when you’ve been calling yourself a “Christian” for quite a while, it can feel as though, well, to be honest, as though you’re just going through the motions.

There’s a shop not too far from where I live that sells stuffed animals. No, not toy ones, real ones that died and have been preserved and stuffed by a taxidermist.

But as dead as they are, they look so real on the outside. The tiger looks like a real tiger, because he is, or at least he was. But on the inside he’s dead.

And that’s the risk of religion. We can start off being so alive for God, but little by little the joy and the peace, the relationship with Jesus on the inside, dies. And what happens then, is that people go through the motions, the rituals. On the outside they look real, but on the inside their love for God has faded.

There are too many people, in fact, way too many people, pretending to be devoted to God, playing at religion. Sadly, churches are full of them.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. Not for you. Because if you believe in Jesus, then His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is here to fill you with life. Don’t just go through the motions. Don’t be dead on the inside. Because Jesus came to bring you life, life in all its abundance.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

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