Misconceptions can affect us in the Christian life. Misconceptions can even cause us to give up on our faith. As a child I made a commitment to Christ. Sadly, either no-one explained to me at the time that I once I became a Christian I would not instantly become perfect and sinless. Or if they did, I never heard it. The result was that even through I read my bible, went to church, prayed and tried to live a Christian life, in my eyes I failed because I still sinned. This led me to conclude that it obviously hadn’t worked. I wasn’t a Christian at all. Consequently every time I heard an altar call or someone challenging people to believe in Jesus, I felt the need to go forward and re-do the whole process, just to be sure.
My Christian walk fluctuated like this for years. I found it hard. In time it stagnated and eventually came to a halt. But the great thing is that at the times when I let go of God, He never let go of me. Time and time again He kept bringing me back to Himself. My relationship with the Lord was an on again off again affair until the Lord put me in the right place to join a strong bible teaching church and then BSF(Bible Study Fellowship).
For the first time I heard my faith and therefore my Christian life, did not depend on whether I felt like a Christian. It did not depend on anything I had done or hadn’t done. It depended solely on what God had done. God’s Word assured me I was a Christian, even when I didn’t feel like one, John 3:16, 1 John 4:10, 13-15. It did not depend on me but God. At that time it was like a light went on in my head. Finally, I realized I didn’t have to be perfect or sinless, just forgiven. And God had done that.
From that point I started to study God’s Word seriously, not on my own as I had been trying to do but as part of a group of bible believing Christians. I found, like me, none of them were perfect either. We all had our faults and foibles that at times showed up. But we also had a God big enough to deal with them. I also learned even the most effective believers committed to God’s Word and doing His will, suffered from this same problem of sin, Roman 5:15-25. I learned from Paul the solution to the problem – what Jesus has already done, Romans 8:1-11.
Suddenly I saw what had been happening. For years Satan had been using misconceptions and discouragement to stunt and stop me in my Christian life. Discouragement is one of his greatest tools for stopping us doing the things God wants us to do, for stopping us reading God’s Word or helping others or spending time building relationships or dealing with sin in our lives. How have misconceptions affected you in your Christian life?
Satan has attempted this tactic in my writing life as well as my Christian life and at times it has worked. But God has told me to write, even again this morning as I sat here thinking I had nothing to write about today. My prayer is that you have found this helpful.
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