Living Unhindered

Are you living in step with God? Having salvation from God through Christ does not mean you will stay in step with God all your life. It is possible that certain attitudes and actions will begin to hinder your ongoing fellowship with God. These things will pull your focus away from trusting God’s story and put your mind on the things of the world. None of them can take you out of your place of salvation through Christ, but your spiritual walk will suffer. And when your spiritual walk begins to suffer you will find that your life becomes less and less Christ-like. Much of these you will recognize are a fairly regular part of life, however, when these turn into more controlling factors in your life they begin pull you out of alignment with God’s plan. Your daily life becomes hindered when one or more of these begins controlling things.

Doubt

It can be hard to believe that God really cares about the small parts of your life. Maybe harder things have come into your life and that is leaving you thinking that God has disengaged and isn’t that interested in you at the moment. You have begun to doubt some things about God and His goodness because things are not going well in your own life. But your circumstances don’t define God’s goodness. Trusting in God’s goodness redefines your circumstances. Joy from the Lord is not based on current conditions around you, but supersedes all of that. There are plenty of things in the world to doubt, God is not one of them.

Unworthiness

The feeling of being unworthy before God is not the same as acknowledging your own sinfulness and falling on God’s grace in salvation. Unworthiness is the idea that some past sin is so bad that there is not way that God could bless you now. Maybe God has forgiven you of the sin, but you are unable to forgive yourself for it. It hinders your spiritual life now even though it happened so long ago. Your relationships, your job, your life is in a steady sense of upheaval because you just aren’t worthy. You unconsciously sabotage yourself because of the feeling. You struggle to trust God and His plan because of it. But God’s grace is unending and reaches every sin of your life not because of you, but because of His great love and goodness. You can trust His love because He doesn’t base it on you, but on Himself.

Self-Focus

This one could really be called idolatry. You are hardwired to worship something. Sin pulls you to worship your own self, your own thinking, and your own worth. Even as a believer you still wrestle with the temptation to view everything from the lens of self. The defining characteristic of your worldview is, well, you. It is the filter through which everything is understood, including God. A growing self-focus is supplanting God from His proper spot in your heart and that will begin to hinder your life. Following Christ means your self is put to death in Christ. But your self doesn’t go down easy. You are full and complete in Christ, but your old flesh wants to pull you back into sin. Self-focus is a common blind spot for people in the church. Who are you trusting, really? Is it God and His story? Or is it your version of the story?

Busyness

Busyness will pull you from alignment with God rapidly, and you often won’t even notice the movement away. Busyness is also tough because the church can keep you really busy, but not with what God is leading you to do. It can be easy to start doing things FOR God instead of being WITH God. God gave the gift of Sabbath to remind the world of the need to not be too busy. You are limited. If you fill your schedule with stuff, even if it is “church” stuff, you will find your walk with God hindered. You will begin to focus on the stuff, and more of it, rather than God.

Sin

It seems that this should be oblivious. But this isn’t a time to point to the sin of someone else. This sin is your sin. And you have it. Stop making excuses for your own sin. Stop comparing your sin to others. Ongoing unconfessed and self-justified sin will harm your relationship with God. There is no hierarchy of sin in God’s eyes. All of it creates separation. Are you hiding sin in your life? God already knows. And He has promised to give forgiveness in Christ. Get alone and confess it to God. Seek His forgiveness. His grace. His mercy. It is yours in Christ. Walking with Christ does not mean you have no sin. That is a farce. But walking with Christ helps you to quickly see it, confess it, and seek His mercy to see it stay under His blood.

Any, and all of these things will pull you out of step with God and His will. These things can often creep in unnoticed, or maybe unwilling to confront in yourself. Do you a community around you? One that can help you see the things that you are hiding from yourself? Do you have friend that can challenge you on anything you are thinking? You need them. God made you for community. A community that knows it is just as messed up as you. Walk through life together and see how you can be pointed towards Jesus.