Are you content with your faith?  It might never seem perfect, but do you ever think that maybe your faith is not entirely what you want it to be, or what you think it should be.  This leads me to the following question:  Is something holding me back?

If there is ever a problem with our faith, the problem is on our side, not God’s side.  He is perfect.   We are not.  He knows everything(Ps. 139:2-4); we know little.  He understands everything(Job 38-41); we understand little.  So when there is a problem with our faith, it is our problem.  And if there is something that is keeping us from realizing the most we possibly can from our faith, there must be something holding us back.  So what is it?

What Is It?

Well, it could be something as basic as we just lack faith.  What is holding us back is our lack of faith, which could be based on a variety of reasons.  We might be a new Christian, and we just have not had that much time to learn that much about God and what He expects of us.  This isn’t a bad thing; everything Christian was a “newbie” at one time or another.  It’s where we all start.  The problem is when we feel like a “newbie” and we’ve been a Christian for 10+ years.  That is problem.  And if that is the problem, we need to learn more . . . about God . . . about ourselves . . . about His word . . . about His people.  So one possibility is that it is a knowledge problem.  We just don’t know.  Those are easy(somewhat) to fix.  We just need to learn more.  It will take time and effort, but if we really care about our relationship with God, we will take the time to learn more about Him.  But what if it is not a knowledge, or lack thereof, problem?

What If It’s Me?

If it is not a knowledge problem, then it is almost certainly a heart issue.  By this, I mean that we know what the right answer is, but for some reason, we are not doing what we should, or we are doing something we should not be doing.  And bad news is that a heart problem is much harder to solve.  In that case, we need to figure out “why.”  Entire books can probably be written about this, but I will be brief, with just a few examples.  What it really boils down to is what is keeping me from being who I should be?

Being the Best Me

Different kinds of things hold different people back, but let’s look at just a few of them, generally.  Sometimes we worry about what other people will think.  Will others think I am weird because I can’t do other things on Sunday morning(because I’m at worship services)?  We might just not be attending worship services because we are putting other things ahead of that.  Some of those things, like family and hobbies, might not be wrong in and of themselves, but when we put them ahead of God, we lessen our faith.  Will my co-workers think there’s something wrong with me because I don’t want to do certain after-work activities(since they would involve something God prohibits)?   This could affect my job(current) or my advancement(future).  I might feel compelled to do things I should not be doing because I’m afraid of the impact it will have on my job, which translates to my income, which translates to my need for food, shelter, clothing, etc.  These are all perfectly legitimate concerns, but they do not excuse sinful behavior.

Taking the Plunge

In the end, we need to choose a path.  Are we going to follow God, or are we going to leave Him behind(also known as turning away from God)?  If we are going to follow Him, that means we will need to make sure difficult decisions, and some of those decisions may have significant costs.  Jesus told His listeners that they needed to weigh the cost before deciding to follow Him(Luke 14:25-33).  And then once they did decide to follow Him, they needed to take up their cross and follow Him(Luke 9:23).  Taking up your cross in the first century Roman Empire was no minor thing.  That meant you were headed to your death!  Jesus was not stating that you would be crucified(literally) if you followed Him, although that was a possibility.  But what people needed to be aware of was that it, or some lesser version, was a possibility each day for the rest of their lives.  Is it any wonder that few people would do it(Matt. 7:12-13)?

What Most Would Not Do

So what we need to do is what most people would not.  We need to follow Him.  And to do so to the best of our ability, we need to figure out what is holding us back from being the most productive [kingdom] citizen we can be.  And it will be different for each of us, but if it is important to us, we will take the time to figure it out . . . and then we will fix it so we can be better.  Why?  Not because we are perfectionists and not because we want to look good(Matt. 6:1), but because we love God.  That should be the foundational reason for everything we do in life.  So let’s do that.