Worth

Recently I have been contemplating worth and value. What do I love most, what is worth the most to me, on what do I place the most value?

 As a christian I believe that myself and all other believers are called to place Gods desires above our own. You see there is a core principle of Christianity that many of us who claim to follow Christ seem to have been forgotten in recent years. In a world where everyone is told they are special, where everyone gets a trophy and it is deeply offensive to suggest that the actions of another are incorrect; in this world we forget that we are all sinners. Sinners are people who get it wrong sometimes, even a lot of the time. We are a people deeply loved by God, but we are also a people who get it wrong a lot. I am convinced that when we meet Jesus in heaven there will be more than a few of our most devout practices that He will just roll His eyes at.

So then the question becomes how can we value God's will above most if we get things so wrong. We can do that by following the example Jesus set for us, by reading the words of scripture and by spending daily time with God.

Recently I have been reading the gospel of John. and in John 12:43 in reference to pharisees John says that some believed in Jesus but did nothing because "they loved human praise more than the praise of God". This is something I struggle with myself, and I see a disheartening amount of times in other professing believers. People who claim to know and love Jesus, but are afraid of criticism, afraid that they cannot defend the gospel they profess to believe. (the gospel defends itself, all we need do is read it)

Then I look to people of other faiths, to Jewish people, to Hindus and Buddhists, but mostly I look at Muslims. I had a conversation with a Muslim person recently, in which they were interested in talking about Christianity and no one would speak to them about it. I tried to explain the idea of a nominal christian (one who calls themselves a christian, and may genuinely believe in Jesus, but does little in the way of applying that faith into the way they live their life) and this confused him even more. He told me that even the least devout Muslims have memorized parts of the Koran, have learned enough to know what they believe and have been taught that if someone asks how to share it. For the Muslim people, at least everyone my new friend knows, faith is of the highest value.

So what is our highest value, and what are we doing to live that out. Because it is one thing to claim that faith is the most important, but if I am not investing in my relationship with Jesus, then my actions clearly indicate otherwise. With this in mind I begin to look at my habits and practices and realize that maybe faith is not as central as it ought to be, and so I begin the process of changing that.