Simply Go.

How many times have you heard someone say when describing their daily life as a follower of Christ, "I am still struggling with _________". Have you heard it? Like for example you may hear people say: I still struggle with not reading my Bible, with not praying, with shooting off my mouth when I'm mad, with gossip, with porn, with food, with money - with WHATEVER. The list among us is long and personal, isn't it?

A struggle is a noose around the neck that we, who are indwelt by the Spirit of God, have the power to remove and even destroy in our lives. But we don't. We leave it there and let it tighten and then complain about it - like it's a hopeless situation of who we are - and that struggle factor is a just a fact of life.

Well that's just bunk! I don't buy it. I refuse!!! Especially when Colossians teaches us that we can put to death our old nature and put on a new self that is being renewed in the knowledge of our Creator. Colossians 3! There's no struggle depicted for the believer - just dead sin. LOVE IT!

Author and speaker Elisabeth Elliot said once, "Struggle is just another word for disobedience." I like her thinking. I like it because this statement she is making puts the power to change where it belongs - on us. Do we really want to be different? Because if we do - well, then with that comes a whole new game, a new way of life, and that might be....hard.

If we choose to read our Bible every day - then that means our whole schedule must change, right?

If we choose to pray, then that means our focus is constantly on God, inviting Him into our thoughts all day long. That constant awareness of God is daunting even weird sounding. Isn't it? Am I going to be weird?

If we choose not shoot our mouth off when we are mad, then that means we don't get to say how we feel. Do we ever get to express how we feel? Does the other person just get to get away with hurting us and making us mad?

If we choose not to gossip then what will we have that is interesting to talk about? People are interesting. What else is there to say without trying to sound smart or actually sounding dumb?

If we choose not to look at porn then our thrill seeking and satisfaction must be met by God. Could that be fun?

If we choose to eat to live and not to live to eat then we may feel hungry and go through cravings. We would have to learn an entirely different way to think about food and what our body really needs verses what we want to give it and enjoy.

If we choose to acknowledge that God owns our stuff, we may give away more than we keep, and so could we really ever be happy? We won't have what other people have.

To struggle is to simply tell God "no". I'm not ready to let go of what I am use to right now. I like it this way, and your way, God, - the unknown - is not as comfortable as where I am right now and what I am choosing to do with my life.

Sad. And sad not because of what we're stuck living with - but sad because we are held captive by something powerless: a weightless, pitiful, laughable IDEA we saw, heard, and then simply chose to put on and believe in. And why? Think about it...think about it carefully - wasn't it because we either didn't know God - or maybe we did know God to some shallow degree, but simply didn't believe Him?

I look back at my life through the pages of my picture books and journals and I just shake my head at what I chose to settle for out of ignorance, complacency, fear or just plain disobedience. I don't want to be that girl today - not ever again. I want to Know God. I want to know Him more and more and more. Could knowing an eternal God ever stop? I want to know Him and believe Him for everything He says no matter what uncertainty or discomfort I may feel. I want to be a woman of God. How could that ever come without fear or discomfort? I'm in skin for crying out loud and I'm carved out in sin potential! To quote my morning workout coach "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable." Thank you, Jillian Michaels. That statement absolutely echoes the truth of God's Word over the lives of His people - whether He was telling Abram to go to a place that God would show Him, or telling Joshua to march around a city 7 times for 7 days, or telling Mary that she would give birth to the Messiah, or the disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Where is comfort in all of that? Where is there not cause to fear? God is asking us to get comfortable with being uncomfortable...at least for awhile.

I turned to John 8 this morning and read Jesus words to the woman caught in the act of adultery. I was this woman. Maybe not in complete detail - but I can feel her shame because it was my own years ago. What Jesus would say to her, mattered greatly to me. He had my attention, and so I listened.

This great Teacher, The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, "The One who was, and is, and is to come" did not give her a lecture, even though He could have, and she would have had to lay there at his feet and listen. He did not give her a 12 step plan . It would have overwhelmed her. He gave her one, simple direction. "Go and leave your life of sin."

I wonder if she did. Ya know? And though I cannot find evidence of her anywhere else in Scripture...I don't really have to, because He spoke these words to me. "Go." And so I did. And I have not looked back, nor have I gone forward without daily going to God to rid my mind and my heart of the habits that brought me to my knees before Him when I was 26. Was it easy? No. Has it been worth it? A thousand times and eternity of times to come - YES! That simple statement is how I look at each day. Jesus set me free, I will not return to the way I lived before Him.

"Go, and leave your life of sin." Powerful truth. We won't miss our life of sin. Of this I am QUITE sure. You know what I'm talkin' about! I know you do! Why are we so afraid we will??? Just like we don't miss our mother's womb, right??? Can you remember that? Do you miss that? No way! In the same way, when we leave our life of sin our new lungs will fill with air, and we will wonder how we ever lived any other way.

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should GO; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." Psalm 32:8

Breathe in truth - breathe out grace - and GO!