Saturday, September 10, 2005

Spiritual Rubber Neck

As humans we have a natural urge to be curious—we see something that looks interesting, so we put aside what we are doing in order to investigate it. A person with a "rubber neck" is someone who slows down in order to view a wreck or something else that seems interesting while driving their car. The lack of attention put towards driving creates a dangerous situation for themselves and those around them. This type of behavior is not limited to drivers alone though. It can also describe the way we as Christians look back on, and follow through with, what we used to do before we accepted Christ.

We all struggle with having "spiritual rubber necks", but such behavior is dangerous! Luke 9: 62 says, "Jesus replied, 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.'" As Christians, we cannot look back to the way we were before Christ. We must focus on, and move forward in, our walk with Christ.

When we get distracted by the things of this world, or we do things that we used to do before we came to Christ, we take our eyes off of God and our dedication to Him suffers. God wants total dedication, not a half-hearted dedication where we pick what we like about Him and do away with what we don't.

Are you dedicated to God, or do you slip back into the habits you had as a non-believer? Because God demands total dedication, you must train yourself to ignore the temporary things of this world. Don't be discouraged though, rather submit yourself to God and trust in His power. Harden your rubber neck so that you do not look back at your old ways and maximize your dedication to God by reading and applying His word. Doing so will strengthen your relationship with Him, and you will find that God will bless you in ways previously thought to be unimaginable.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I SOOOOO needed to hear that! Thanks, once again, for your awesome words, Collin!

Stuart Cowen said...

Amen! I needed that too. We can;t change an hour ago, let alone what happened before Christ. We shouldn't even regard it. Also, whatever we put our focus on lowers Jesus to second best in our lives at best. Thanks for the encouragement!

Anonymous said...

I'm definitely working on the "reading and applying His word" part lol. Thanks to the best accountability partner ever lol! Keep up the awesome work! Never get discouraged, just keep on keepin on!