I heard someone say one time, “What I don’t like about Christianity is that it boils down to having to give up most of my favorite things in life.”

This dreary, but commonly held attitude not only drastically shortchanges the innumerable upsides of the Christian faith but reduces it all to a mere exercise in dos and don’ts.

Imagine how many recruits for football you would get if you told them that the game is about grinding physical preparation, extreme violence, frequent injuries and murderous opposition.

If you stopped there, the stadiums would be empty.

Only a Start

Contrary to popular opinion, Christianity is not defined by what you turn away from, but by what you turn toward.

Giving things up may lead to temporary reformation, but when you pivot the focus of your life Christward, that leads to lasting transformation.

I’ve seen this a lot with people trying to kick an addiction, especially with alcohol. They get all fired up about quitting things and “white knuckling” getting sober by sheer will power.

Quitting drinking isn’t enough. It’s like trying to hold on to a fistful of sand.

Likewise, just “sweeping out your spiritual house” simply leaves it vulnerable to reinfestation IF you don’t fill it with something that will repel the bad stuff from returning, as described in Matthew 12:43-45:

“Now when the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first.”

To stop at merely getting rid of bad things in your life (sweeping out your house) is to invite disaster down the road.

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” so you must replace your prior preoccupation with the things of this world with a preoccupation with Jesus.

What Really Counts

The Apostle Paul was no stranger to extreme opposition, countless temptations and the danger of losing focus on what really matters.

In Philippians 3:13-14, he wrote:

“Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it (the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord) yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Your Christian faith must have an underlying goal, an overarching aspiration — to KNOW Christ personally, intimately — and to do that, you need to rid yourself of the encumbrances that weigh you down.

As explained in 2 Timothy 2:4-6:

“No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him. And if someone likewise competes as an athlete, he is not crowned as victor unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.”

Our biggest hindrance to growth in the Christian life is far too often … US.

We weigh ourselves down with bad habits, worldly pursuits, endless distractions, etc., and then wonder why we’re going nowhere spiritually. Duh!

New Start

In a previous article, I wrote: “Ultimately, if we insist on holding on to our inner darkness, outer darkness is sure to follow. That is why the scriptures so often call us to ‘repentance.’ In the Greek of the New Testament, this is the word ‘metanoeo,’ which means ‘to think differently or afterward, i.e. reconsider.’ Literally, we are called to a new mind on the matter of what makes us tick and how we are intended to fit into God’s universe as he created it.” 

In 2 Corinthians 3:15-17, the Apostle Paul described a spiritual blindness that afflicted the Jews when they fixated on the old covenant law of works. A veil descended over their minds until they turned away from self to God:

But to this day whenever Moses (the Law) is read, a veil lies over their hearts; but whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

How About You?

God is all about setting us free from the countless encumbrances of life in a fallen world.

As described in Hebrews 12:1-2, He wants us to “rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us…looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith …”