Not Just A “Lip Service” Kind Of Faith

Not Just A “Lip Service” Kind Of Faith

Sister Miki Terayama - 19 September 2021

Weekend Devotion: Not Just A "Lip Service" Kind Of Faith

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Dear brothers and sisters, how many times have we said we should rely on faith, we should look to God, we should pray more, we should give thanks for His grace, yet it only becomes lip service? Like recently, I had a Parent Teacher meeting with my daughter’s teachers and they were saying how weak her recognition of Chinese words was. I was quickly thinking up of a few solutions and methods up in my head after that was said. I desired for her to catch up fast, maybe attend some enrichment classes, prove the teacher that she can do so much more. Those were the honest thoughts that first came to my mind. I still had a lot of my worldly and competitive ideals for my child, despite me saying I don’t want to raise her with a typical worldly mindset as a parent. And for some of us, it could be in other ways. Like we may say that we want to submit and follow the Lord in our daily living, but in truth, we can be reluctant to sacrifice parts of our own desires, certain time, effort, inconveniences to do so. We may say we want to love the people around us, yet we have no heart or burden to interact further and deeper with others, rather we stick to our comfort zones. Now, when our heart and mind are being challenged with these things, that is when our true desires are shown. Actually, our words are tools of deception that we use on ourselves and others. Therefore, we must carefully look at how we make our decisions for time, on people, on our situations, to reflect on the state of our hearts. Luke 9:57-62 tells us an example of some men who uses their words, yet not true submission of the heart. “As they were walking along the road, a man said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Knowing The Cost Of Following Jesus

Now over in this verses, it reflects 3 kinds of characters. The first one is pretty obvious, he did not see the cost of following Jesus and quickly, out of zealousness, says he wants to follow Him wherever He goes. Now, in our own lives, it is so easy to say things like that as well. Words from our mouth, a little text or a caption on a social media post can all easily proclaim that. Yet, when we truly internalise the cost of following Jesus, we may stammer, retreat or even find excuses. There could be many variables to our unhappiness, but the ultimate reason is how we look at the gospel, how we value it in everything we partake and give out. We can all easily say that God loves us, He will listen to our prayers. But do we see the value of sometimes needing to be challenged in spirit through His love? Are we willing to bear certain crosses and not just relish in the joy of our desired blessings? Like praying for family salvation, ministering to troubled brethren or taking time out of rest to nurture our kids in God’s truth? We need to break out of this rhythm of lip service and be waken in our spiritual conscience, each and every time, by the message and word of God, lest we become stumbled in the days ahead. Lest we often become tempted by our sins, entrapped by the world’s influences and not even realising the subtle works of it.

Do not miss the opportunity.
Also, we see another kind of character in the second man who is personally invited by Jesus to join Him on the journey. Now, the person gave the Lord a reasonable response of having to bury his father first, before going with Jesus. By human standards, there is nothing wrong with this request from the man, but Lord Jesus gave him a very important reply, telling him not to miss the opportunity. “The dead can bury themselves”, meaning matters of the household can be handled by others in the family, but when the Lord calls us, we must never miss the timing to do so. Men are filled with so many relationships and responsibilities, many unfinished business and attachments, but the important relationship we must keep in priority is the one with the Lord. When the Lord calls us, it is more important than any other calling, because He is the main driver of all our hopes and joy and plans, and every other goodness in what we do flows from there. So any opportunity to heed His calling is very crucial. If we cannot discern what is God calling is into, and what is driven by our own voices, we may take a lot of longer, harder turns. Our faith will only be on the surface level, and we cannot follow the Lord to the end. So ask yourself today, what is God convicting us into in this season? Or has He been constantly nudging our spiritual conscience on certain matters that we have been sitting on? What is causing the gap in your relationship with Him? Brothers and sisters, do not miss the timing when God invites us into a blessed doorway.

Do not demand from the Lord.

Finally, there is one last character in the verses. This man said that he wants to follow Jesus, but he made a request, to bid his family farewell first. Same as the previous man, even though this request does not seem wrong, but in this scenario, he has taken away the meaning of following Jesus, because men cannot demand from the Lord when we want to follow Him. Just like we cannot tell the Lord, “I want to follow You, but You let me go for a month long holiday first, then I will come back and serve You well.” Or “I can follow You, Lord, but I can only interact and work with certain kinds of people.” This is not the way to follow the Lord. We must know that when the Lord calls us into a life with Him, the Lord has already considered and taken care of all our needs and concerns in His grace. So we cannot follow Him, yet doubt His leading or still have a lot of our own reservations and requests. We need to keep being reminded of His calling for us, trust in what He has prepared, put away the unbelief with His promises and follow the Lord step by step. Let us not put conditions or demands in between our relationship with God. Then will our faith not become one that merely proclaims but is not truly submissive. We will be caught lesser in a “dilemma” of self and faith, and become a truly joyful and thankful child of God.
May the Lord reveal to each of us here, the value and glory of following Him to the end.
God bless.

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Miki Terayama
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Miki is a full-time ministry staff at The Blessed Run Ministries. She is a sister who shares a natural, God-given affinity with children and youths. She is married to Randy (NET Group Youth Leader) and has two little ones of her own, Liora and Jude. She is involved in the children, youth and social media ministries.

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