LEAKY BUCKET

Excerpt from today (hear more at www.kenoshafirst.com):

Sometimes I have a leaky bucket between Sunday morning and Sunday night and it seems I carry all these great intentions, but then I get tested and I fail – and I promise God I’ll never fail again – only to fail again and feel worse after that failure than I did after the first one.

Ever feel that way about the sin in your life? This thing is just bigger than you – it’s impossible to overcome? My dad did it and his dad it – I’ve watched it all my life growing up – this generational thing. And it's like no matter how much you want to do better – promise to do better – pray you’ll do better – get people around you to do better – you still can’t get this thing working.

God isn’t content to just clean up your life a little bit – He wants to mess with everything in you that doesn’t look like Jesus. He wants to invade every dark spot – He wants to shine His light into every small corner – no room left untouched.

But the good news is that GOD IS FOR YOU. He doesn’t allow every temptation and every struggle in your life to go away when you meet Christ because if He DID, you wouldn’t need Him anymore. So, in order to continue the process of brokenness in your life, so you know that God is all you have and God is all you need, He allows challenges to come.

At some point in our lives, we are confronted with the fact that we are not the people we know we should be. Almost always, our basic response is to ‘pull up our boot straps,’ ‘roll up our sleeves’ and ‘turn over a new leaf’ in order to try harder to live according to the principles God has set down for us. But – as we have found out – that leads us to spiritual dead ends every time. You cannot do this by simply ‘putting enough elbow grease’ to it.

God says, ”I don’t want just this much of your time and this much of your money and this much of your life so your natural self can have the rest. I want YOU. ALL of you. So hand over all your desires, not just the ones you think are wicked, but the ones you think are innocent – the whole outfit. And I will give you a NEW self instead.”’

The only solution is not to simply change our behavior, but to re-orient and center our entire hearts and lives to Him. If I am a grass field, all the cutting will keep the grass less, but it won’t produce wheat. If I want wheat … I must be plowed up and re-sown.

Does that scare you? Does it sound restrictive? Remember this – if you don’t live for Christ, you will live for something else. That much is inevitable. But your career can’t die for your sins. Your children can’t die for your sins. Your spouse can’t. Jesus is the only One you can live for who died for you … and if He is the center of your life and you fail Him – He forgives you. Does THAT sound oppressive? No.

And be blessed.