Christianeez

I have been a born again Christian for what seems like most of my life.  I am in my fifties now.  And all of those years have not been in any kind of continuous string.  Realizing that there must be a reason for all this, I tried come up with the reason some people, myself included, fall away after being born again, and to offer my suggestions for maintaining the lifestyle, and enjoying it.

I have admired dedicated church-going Christians for many years.  I can even go so far as to say I was jealous of those who found it easy to just throw their hands in the air and worship God.  I was never comfortable enough to do that sort of thing.  I am very self-conscious about how I look to people.  The problem I find is that many of those same people look at and live life like it is some kind of trial with test after test coming from God to help them prove their mettle.  I think it is silly and disappointing to live that way.  If there is anything I know instinctively, it's that God wants us to enjoy being His children.  Make no mistake.  There are going to be trials.  Life is not supposed to be easy.  One look at what the Jews went through in the Bible should illustrate that pretty convincingly.  No one is beyond life's tribulations. 

Many people feel that the way to heaven is through doing the right things and leading a good life.  I have spoken with many who attend a certain very large worldwide church who have been brainwashed into thinking that if they just listen to their church leaders, and do what they are told, they can attain paradise.  They even go so far as to participate in idol worship by praying to our Savior's mother.  While she is certainly special, praying to her violates the commandment referring to "other god's."

It is not how one reacts when things are going well, but how that person reacts while undergoing adversity. One cannot overcome life's problems alone.  God has always been there to help His children deal with them.  The only thing He ever asks is that we come to Him with all of our issues and lay them at His feet.  So simple, yet so difficult to do.  He never asks us to go see a man at church and tell him our sins.  He never tells us to pray to dead people and beg for their intercession on our behalf.  He wants to deal with us directly, one on one. 

The one lesson to be learned from this is that being a child of God is surprisingly simple.  In fact, having the faith of a child is mentioned in the Bible.  I think if we realized that giving it all up to Him is all it takes, we would find that life's problems do not seem so insurmountable.  We would realize that our sins really were forgiven two thousand years ago.  All we have to do is love and worship Him, and everything else will just seem to fall into place.