Today, I was making my breakfast and while I may not have solved the problems of the world, I was able to pinpoint an arguable root – commitment…or rather, a lack thereof.
I was scooping grapefruit into a bowl when it hit me how difficult we make things for ourselves by explaining them away with excuses. For example, when I talk to people about portion control, the excuse is often that weighing food is too much work.
Is it though ?
I spoke with someone recently who has been mandated to lose 40 lbs. and only has 90 days left to do so. I gave 3 very simple rules:
- Stop pouring
- Stop using your servingware
- Read labels
Everything we eat comes with a serving size. If your cereal says that a serving is ½ a cup, why would you pour it when you can just as easily use a measuring cup to scoop it out of the box? Along the same thread, why use a spoon when you have no idea how much food that spoon holds?
We make excuses when all we really need to do is admit that we don’t want to follow directions.
I have been asked a million times ‘how’ I don’t have sex, not why, but literally how, as if there’s some algebraic equation to abstinence. Yet what bothers me most is that as quickly as the question comes up, it’s just as quickly dismissed with the vocalized revelation, “oh, well you are really religious”.
Am I though ?
On many levels I am probably one of the least religious people you’ll meet! The problem is that people spend more time listening than they do studying.
NOT ONCE IN THE BIBLE DO YOU SEE JESUS USE THE WORD RELIGION!
Yet man has spent so much time listening to other men that they confuse religion with faith - often perceiving the two to be synonymous. They are not.
Faith is defined in the bible, religion is not, reason being – religion is a man-made construct.
In Hebrews 11:1 the bible defines faith as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not yet see” (NIV). What do any of those words have to do with religion? Which Merriam-Webster defines as “a particular SYSTEM of faith or worship.
Religion is how we get off track in our faith.
We get so tied up in trying to fit into the system, that we forget God never intended for us to fit in!
Every week different churches said to be of the same religion do things in absolute contrast to one another. Some do a weekly communion, some do so monthly. Some pass the collection plate multiple times while others do so only once. Some have devoted followers to an upright man of one wife, while others follow a shepherd whose wife, mistress, and children all sing in the same choir.
God didn’t sanction this foolishness!
He has given us clear orders based on the biblical definition of faith, because where you cannot find a definition of religion in the bible, what you can find is the statement, ‘according to your faith’, nearly 100 times.
According to your faith there are tasks that Jesus performs in the bible and tasks that He asks believers to perform.
I’m not out here abstaining from sex because of religion. NO ONE IS! If religion kept you pure there wouldn’t be sexual immorality - perversion, adultery, and fornication in the church!
I am eating healthy, being more active, and abstaining from sex because of my commitment to God, my faith, and myself.
I am committed to eating better and moving more because I have confidence that it will heal my body. I abstain from sex because I am confident that the promises of God are still true and that His values never shift, even when ours do.
People joke about laying down their religion all the time when they seek to willfully make bad decisions, but you have never once heard anyone talk about laying down their faith. In fact, we fight with every ounce of our being to hold on to it.
So, just so that you don’t get confused and we can all be clear about why I do what I do, let’s agree that today, I’m losing my religion…and maybe you should too.
Let’s commit to the type of bold faith that moves God to issue a bold response!
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