Who Or What We Reject Matters
We are free to choose to reject whatever we want. Sometimes we reject activities or pursuits that are valuable. We just don’t think they have value or we can’t see the value. That has more to do with knowledge and vision. It can also come down to need. We don’t see a need.
If we look at our faith life, when people reject or ignore spiritual pursuits, they don’t see a need. They can’t see the value. If we see a need or we see value in pursuing spiritual growth and clarity, our behavior reflects that.
We know that when people value something or some activity, they devote time to it and they spend money on it. We can easily look at our own lives and look at where we’re spending our time and money. Those are the ideas or activities that we have chosen to accept and embrace. We value those activities or else we wouldn’t be spending what most people consider to be their most precious assets. Time and money. This is part of self-evaluation. Honesty is required. Sometimes brutal honesty. What do you value the most? What are you spending the most time on? Is there value there ? What are you choosing to reject ?
Where is Your Value ?
If you look at the picture above, this is clearly a relationship. Relationships have value. What if Jesus was the one pleading with you to come to him? The most important relationships that we have are the ones we have with God and Jesus. They hold our eternity and the nature of our eternity in their hands. If we believe that statement, then we can agree that there isn’t anything more important than that.
“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”
(12:21 NLT)
I just came across a statement by C.S. Lewis. It’s absolutely brilliant because it breaks things down to their essentials.
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
We all get caught up in a lifestyle that makes our faith moderately important. If it was infinitely important our lives would reflect that.
Where does value originate ? How do you decide what is valuable in your life ? Many times we make decisions about value with ourselves in the middle of those decisions. How is this activity going to help me or my family? How am I going to benefit from spending time working on this project?
Really we are just bouncing in this life from accepting or rejecting activities or pursuits at all times. Look at this verse in Luke 10:16,
“Whoever listens to you, listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me, rejects Him who sent me.”
We choose to accept or reject someone or something every day. To me it’s about consistency. Whatever we consistently reject over the course of years is what influences this life and the next. It determines our destiny. What we consistently choose to accept and embrace over the course of years is what has the most impact on this life and our eternity.
We Need To Choose To Reject Wisely
Choosing the right way is really choosing the HARD way. It is hard to put ME second and think of others first.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. “ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
( Matthew 7:13-14 NIV)
In “Brave the Wave”, there is an idea that OUR eternity is OUR responsibility. OUR choices and OUR rejections are both OUR responsibility. Jesus is telling us in the above verse from Luke that what we choose to reject is just as important as what we choose to accept, if not more important.