Are You In Danger Of Being Too Religious? I was.

When my kids were younger we had an If/Then chart. It followed the biblical principals in the Old Testament where God say over and over, “If you, then I will…” It was a practical tool when I was teaching my toddlers first time obedience, the blessing of honesty, and being diligent in their chores. But it isn’t a good tool to carry over into our faith, but many of us do, including me. I was living like a Pharisee hoping I could be made perfect if I followed the IF/THEN principal into my faith with Jesus.

The only problem is that doesn’t work. Simply put, IF I can’t follow all the rules, THEN there is Jesus. Period. But that wasn’t enough. There were rules. There was stuff I were supposed to do. Grace couldn’t simply be enough, could it?

If you stick with me until the end, I am going to give you one simple way to evaluate whether or not you’ve got a little Pharisee in you, too.

Look, this if/then religious concept is a common struggle for us Christians. It’s no respecter of persons and the struggle has been around for a long time. Go to Galatians 3:1-5 and read what the Apostle Paul said to the Christians around AD 57 who were struggling with it. It’s 2016 and we’re still having the conversation… A works based, trying to earn what’s freely given is a sneaky little spirit… Sometimes we don’t even know its a problem until someone brings it to our attention. And that my friend is exactly what happened to me.

I was wrestling with something from my past. I had repented and I wasn’t struggling with the temptation of it, but the memories were haunting me. I felt like what I did was the disqualifying factor in my life, and I was filtering everything God said about me through that lens. I went to meet with a Pastor, and He asked me one simple question:

Beth, the cross + what will qualify you? Those words… The cross + what… There is was. I was living my life trying to be made whole, feel qualified, by human efforts because I didn’t really understand that the cross had already made me complete (perfect).

So to fill that void and make myself feel like a whole Christian my life became

The cross + serving

The cross + calling

The cross + church

The cross + studying/praying

The cross + _______ (fill in the blank I was doing it)

And while all of those things are good, I was doing them as a way to stay connected to God, and not out of the overflow of being connected to Him. Suddenly, I could see why nothing satisfied that empty feeling. Until I came to the place the cross + nothing else, I would remain feeling not enough.

So here you are, at the end, now it’s your turn:

Do you feel empty inside?

Do you feel anxious?

Are you still battling sins that you’ve been forgiven for?

Are you serving God to prove you’re on the team?

If you answered yes to any of those, ask yourself what the pastor asked me.

The cross + what will make you feel enough?

Friend we have to come to a place where we get that it’s Jesus + NOTHING that makes us perfect (whole/complete) enough. I knew it in my head, but I didn’t know it in my heart. God had to get it there, and He did.

If you want to know how to get to the place same place I found, join me tomorrow in our Remade Community on Facebook as we talk more in-depth on #MentorMonday about how to get to the place where it’s Jesus + nothing. I hope you’ll join me at 12:30 PST. Next week we’re going to talk about a spirit of rejection and how to deal with.

Keep pursuing Him,

PS… I hope this woke something in you that maybe like me you didn’t know you had. If so, share it in the comments below. What’s your cross + what…? I would love to hear how this spoke to you.