Christian 1 or Christian 2?

An article for the Hope Revolution website.

Have you ever gone without food for a long time? Maybe you’ve fasted for a charity, forgotten your lunchbox, or just run out of money on a long trip. Something happens when people get hungry. They change. Lack of water does the same thing. We get dizzy, see mirages, and go crazy with thirst.

That’s how God wants us to be with Him! That’s what the Bible means when it talks about heart, soul, mind and strength. God wants us desperate. Passionate! The Scriptures are full of people who loved God that way. Abraham with his son, David with his harp, Daniel in his den, and so many more. All there to remind us to give God 100% and be passionate in loving Him.

But is that it? Are we just called to love God and give Him everything? YES! ...and NO! The greatest commandment says that loving God is our no.1 priority, but it goes on to say that’s only half the story. Matthew 22 speaks of ”loving our neighbours as we love ourselves.”

Confession time. Have you ever been bored in church? Ever found it hard to lift your hands in worship, or dozed off whilst reading the Bible? Many times in my own Christian walk, I’ve found that I’ve gotten so used to going through the motions, that I haven’t been desperate for God. I haven’t been loving Him with my heart and soul. The thing is that nearly every time, when I stop and think, it hasn’t been the quality of the teaching on Sundays that’s the problem. Not even my old Bible translation or the dreary worship team at church. It’s me. It’s when I stop giving out, and get so clogged up that I can’t receive anything from God. I sincerely believe that there’s a point in our Christian walk where we’ve seen and heard so much, that it’s like we don’t have room for any more.

We can all go through phases like that, but the sad thing is that some of us get stuck. I call these ”Just-me-and-God-Christians”. They know the rules, attend the meetings, pray the prayers, sing the songs, and learn the liturgy. But after a while, they get so full they start saying stuff like ”I’ve heard all that before”, ”Youth group’s boring”, and ”I don’t need to go to church”.

Matthew 10:8 says we’ve received freely and that we need to give freely. When we start loving our neighbour and giving out, we create a space on the inside and suddenly find ourselves hungry again. I call these believers ”Me-God-and-someone-else-Christians”. These guys have realised they can’t keep it all to themselves.

Everything God gives you is for you, sure, but it’s also for someone else. Everything He does in your life can be shared with the people around you. Don’t settle for being a “Just-me-and-God-Christian”. Sit with that loner on the bus tomorrow. Stand up for the girl in college everyone’s been bullying for so long. Send someone a text, give your classmates a Bible, or start an outreaching CU in your school. Whatever you do, always have someone you’re giving to. You may not be able to help everyone, but you can always help someone.