What’s In Your Wallet?
What’s In Your Wallet?
Verse of the Day: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Matthew 6:33
Why is it that we treat our Christianity like a card in our wallet that we rarely take out?
Men, how many of you have a wallet that if you were to go through it, there would be surprises in there? How often do you clean it out? Do you ever clean it out? When was the last time you went through everything in there? And women, you aren’t off the hook. The last time I checked my wife’s purse for something she asked me to get, I’m pretty sure there was a receipt in there from 2017.
The point to this dribble is this, frequently our Christianity is only taken out when we need to use it. It’s like the Walgreens or CVS card, we don’t know what it really gets us, but we use it only when we are in the store. Most of the time we forget it’s in our wallet until it’s time to use it. Same with a fishing or hunting license. Most of us can’t get our drivers license out of the clear holder, especially when we’ve been pulled over.
Our Christianity is treated the same. Unless we are around other Christians, we are usually involved in life. Shouldn’t our life involve our Christianity? Most of us go to work, or are retired, but nevertheless we fill our lives up with other ‘stuff’ and usually our Christianity is left in our wallet. Sure we talk about Christianity with people at our church, but is your life centered around Jesus Christ?
This isn’t your faith. Your faith is inside you. This isn’t the Holy Spirit, this is also inside you. Your faith and the Holy Spirit is what people can’t see. Your Christianity should be all the things people can see. How you treat other people, your grace, forgiveness and love. It’s your conformity to live like Jesus. To use his teachings. To live a life that would bring glory to God. This shouldn’t be tucked away in your wallet only to be used as needed.
Unfortunately though, that’s the case. I wholeheartedly admit it. I am guilty of it. Usually when I’m deep into not behaving like a Christian is when I need to pull it out of my wallet.
Frustration is one for me. Sometimes frustration gets the best of me, and only afterward do I regret not using my Christianity to get me through it in the beginning. My Christianity involves me using my faith and the Holy Spirit to help temper me to handle those frustrating moments. It’s using the teachings of Jesus Christ to apply to a given situation. Not relying on me. I always, always, fail when I rely on me. Turning to God during those times is a work in progress for me. It takes training, learning and devoting your time to God.
The word Christian is overused and diluted. It can mean so many things, but it shouldn’t. We should be Christ-centered. Our lives should be centered around Jesus Christ. We shouldn’t treat Christianity like a card in our wallet only to be taken out when we need to use it. Our Christ-centered lives should present who we are to others. They should see Jesus in the lives we live. And that is so so hard. At least for me.
If our Christianity was always present in our lives, it would never have to be taken out to be used. It would already be there. It’s a lifestyle change. It involves making drastic changes to your life. For some, not many changes have to be made at all. But for me, I had to clean out a lot of garbage from my wallet. I constantly have to make sure to keep things out of my wallet that I don’t need in there. Things that would just take up space. Unnecessary and not useful. It’s cleaning out the garbage and putting in only the things you need to be centered around Jesus.
Take a look at your Christ-centered life. Is it centered on Jesus Christ? When was the last time you talked about Jesus with a family member? When was the last time you went to church? Have you read your Bible today?
You can’t expect your life to be centered around Jesus Christ (Christianity) if you don’t put Jesus Christ at the center of your life.
What’s in your wallet?
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.”
Proverbs 3:5-7
“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”
1 Corinthians 11:1-3