What’s In Your Suitcase?
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)
As a pastor, I can’t tell you how many times I have counselled people, “how you posture (present) yourself before God affects how God can work in your life.” By this I simply mean, if you expect God to be a part of your life, you have to be a part of His. One cannot expect God to answer prayer and move on one’s behalf if he or she continually chooses not to have anything to do with God until they are in need or crisis. It is not that God in His mercy will not move at times on our behalf even though we have been unfaithful or negligent in our personal walk with Him. But to expect God to bless us with favor which comes through obedience to His will and His ways without venturing the obedience is misguided. As in marriage so it is in our spiritual lives, if I don’t put the time in necessary to nurture a good marriage, I cannot complain in the end that it is somehow unfair that my marriage is on the rocks.
Another way to look at this is “how you pack says alot about where you are going.” A young lady in our congregation shared this analogy with me just recently. A cadet in her high school ROTC program, she shared with me that one of their drills was deliberately messed-up by some cadets who laughed and made light of their behavior. In response, her Marine drill instructor shared the above observation: “how you pack says alot about where you are going.” In other words, if I pack my swim trunks, sun block, shorts and t-shirts, it is a fair assumption I am going some place warm where I will be able to swim and enjoy the sun. If I pack my gloves, a hat, some sweaters, pants, and boots, you would be correct in assuming I am going some place cold or at least cool. How one prepares in life says alot about where they are going. To pack for the warmth of the beach and expect with those items to endure the cold of the mountains doesn’t make much sense. Yet, in spiritual matters, there are many who do just that. They live contrary to the will and ways of God expecting all along to be blessed as if they have been following as a faithful disciple. It doesn’t compute.
So what am I saying? Think about how you are living before the Lord. “Examine yourself,” as Paul admonishes us in 1 Corinthians 11:28. Maybe the reason God doesn’t appear to be leading and guiding your life, responding to your prayers and concerns, is because of what is in your suitcase. Let me ask you this. If we were to look would we see evidence of a faithful worshipper and disciple of Christ or of a nominal individual who is more interested in personal pursuits, interests, and desires rather than the will and ways of God. Believe it or not, it matters. Maybe its time to repack.
