Commitment

As I thought about commitment this past weekend and how it relates to me, I think I sort of gained a new perspective. Sure it is just like a promise but I believe it is more than that. A promise is more of something you tell someone you will do for them, but a commitment is something you do for yourself. That might not really make sense but let us see if I can make sense of it for you. When I think about my commitment to the Lord, I usually just try to keep from being sinful because it is "what I am suppose to do" and I end up "promising" to never do it again. These promises always come up short because I try to do things on my own and am not committed to what I said I would do. If I commit to Christ my life and all that I am, I am saying that it is his and that I am willing to do what it takes to be wholly devoted to him, to follow his commandments and ways. It is not so much a promise to be good but a striving effort. It is to turn away from things that can be detrimental to you so that you can show yourself that you can fulfill what you have said and so that God can be pleased with your actions. I think that I fail to be committed to God most of the time because I have given him my life but I still want to hold on to certain areas. This brings me to the "obligation" of being good so I can be a "good Christian." I do not want to be good for the sake of being a "good Christian", rather I want to be good for the sake of Christ and for the sake of myself as well as those that are involved in my life. I get too caught up in the logistics of things that I forget to come back to the core of what my faith in him is... a friendship and discipleship. He tries to teach me everyday and if I am not committed to learning, then we are both wasting our time. I can spend time with my friends and blow off the only one who will EVER love me unconditionally, but I will never spend time with him to blow off my friends. That is a tough concept to grasp, unless I can prove it to be false. I wish I knew why I made certain decisions in life, but I know that I can move past the stuff I have done and have new life, if I show that the changes I have promised are real.

Tonight I just want to reference the verses in James 2:14-22 about faith and deeds. We can learn so much from that but we need to put it into action just as the passage says!

I hope you all have a great evening and that you are all doing well, you are in my prayers as is this blog in general. Please continue to pray for me, I know God is still doing work in me.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson