What Keeps You From Following God? « Videos « The Skit Guys

The Skit Guys have put out this hilarious video on what keeps us from following God.  I think this is applies to people who follow Christ and those who don't.  This is a longer video clip (about 11 minutes) but it had me laughing, crying and ultimately thinking.


What Keeps You From Following God? « Videos « The Skit Guys


What really keeps us from following God?  Is it our pasts?  Is it our stubbornness?  Is it the people in our lives?  Is it the things that we have grown to like?  Is it pain?


The point that these guys try to get across is that ultimately its us who stands in the way of following God.  But why would it be us, why would it be me who stands in my own way?  I don't know what your excuses have been over the years, but I know I have come up with a few--even as a Christian.


I want to take a moment and see whether it is really me who stands in the way:


"I have been hurt in the past, I just can't get past the pain..."  yet the Bible promises "I will never forget your commandments, for by them you give me life." (Psalm 119:93) And the funny thing?  When I have given over  my pain and suffering to God, and when I have followed His wisdom instead of my own, I have received real and final healing from God.


"If God really knew what I have done, he wouldn't actually forgive me.  Jesus came for those who did little things, but I know I am too bad..." I know I have felt this cry in my soul, and yet again have experienced the promises in the Bible.  "The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure." (1 Cor 10:13) AND " For 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" (Rom 10:13).  I guess I am neither special nor un-savable in my sins.  Jesus died once for the whole world, and I was included in that deal.  The infinite God is more than a match for my finite sins.  He makes no caveat, nor any requirements for receiving his promises, think about John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have eternal life."  God's requirement I guess is just belief.  Just for me to accept what he has already done for me.


"If Christians would just act like Christians, I could believe in God..." This is what Gandhi reportedly said about belief in Jesus, and many people the world over have said the same.  I too, have felt that Christians kind of give the lie to the promise of the Gospel.  I read how the Bible calls the people of God to be, and yet I have seen time and time again these people of God fail.  I have called (and continue to call) myself a person of God and I have watched myself fail.  So what's the deal?  Should all Christians be perfect?  Should we show the world that God makes a difference in our lives?  The short answer is yes.  The Bible tells us "Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)  Jesus calls us and gives us the power to live apart from the world, following the commands of God as we do so.  Yet that wasn't the point, and it isn't the real answer.


You see, as we come to Christmas we see a story about God that strikes us differently than our perceptions of the "commands" we find in the Bible.  God came to earth humbly, as a little baby boy who was born in one of the dirtiest places imaginable.  He was born as a human in order to set us up with a relationship with him, and not a rule book.  Even when I acknowledge the rules God gives us, when I ignore the relationship God gives us in his son, Jesus Christ, I end up losing by trying to follow "the rules."  Here's the point: when I make it about the rules I end up keeping myself centered as the point of it all.  I am trying to be perfect.  And I fail.  Just as I did apart from Jesus when it was all about me then.  Yet when I focus on the relationship I have with Jesus, rules and being perfect cease to matter.


When I say "cease to matter" I mean cease to matter.  Yes they still apply, but they become tools I can use to seek to please God rather than become good enough.  But they cease to matter, because I can no longer focus on them while looking at Jesus.  He becomes the most important thing in life.  Sure I still stumble and at times even fall.  Yet those aren't failures because I know what truly matters: Jesus.  So when I am asked about the rules we need to follow from the Bible I can say, "Yes, but thats not what is important."  What is important is my relationship with Jesus.  I don't mean to diminish their importance, but realistically next to Jesus they are nothing.  I learn to follow the rules and accept God's boundaries as part of his plan for my well being, and as things that I can do to please him.


So, like the Skit Guys suggest, it is myself that becomes the biggest roadblock to following God.  When I make it about me, I have no room for HE.  When "I" am the biggest word in my vocabulary, I get in my own way.


As we celebrate Christmas this week, meditate on your relationship with Jesus.  I have said before that all of us have one with him, it just varies upon our use for it.  Where are you at?  And do you need to ask Jesus for the Christmas gift of getting "me" out of the way so you can live for HE?