Making Christ Our 1st Principle, Part 3

In our last post, we looked at a powerful tool for staying connected to Christ. But before we go into other options for how to stay connected to Christ throughout an entire day, you might be thinking, “Ryan, you have no idea how my sinful nature works.  I can have all the right intentions to connect with Christ throughout the day but then at some point, possibly minutes from now, I just don’t ‘feel’ like connecting to Him. Instead, I want to sin.  What do I do then?”

I love what Matthew 21:28-32 has to say about this. 

“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went.  And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.  For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”

Notice the first son said no but then went and did it anyway.  He may not have had the best attitude. He may not have had a lot of joy doing it. However, he did the will of the Father by doing it. Sometimes the best we can do is to show up and do it. Sometimes showing up shifts our desires.  Even if it doesn’t, Christ deserves us to praise and thank Him. 

One thing that helps me to do it is when I say I will only think about what is cool about Christ for 10 seconds. Then after just 10 seconds, my desires change, I see how good it is to answer what is cool about Christ and continue to do more of it.

Sometimes I act like a 5.4-year-old boy (instead of the 54-year-old man that I am) and say to my wife, “I don’t want to connect to Christ.” She just has to look at me and smile, and I say like a 5.4-year-old, “Ok, ok I will connect to Him.” Then once I do, I find it ridiculous that I even thought about not connecting with Him.

Sometimes, I have to remind myself of the good that will come just by connecting to Him, and that starts to shift me.

Sometimes I have to remember how much it pleases the world, the flesh, and the devil when I don’t connect to Christ. They are the enemy. I don’t want to help the enemy.

Sometimes I need to connect to Him with someone else. So I can ask my wife, friend, a coworker what they find cool about Christ, and their answer fires me up.  Then, I can add to their answers of what is cool about Christ.

Sometimes I need to apply some of what I learned through James Clear’s Atomic Habits and give myself an immediate reward for doing it.  So I might say to myself, “After I connect to Christ, if I really want to veg out, I can.” (The reality is once I connect to Christ, I will be energized and don’t need to veg out mindlessly).

The idea is to jump into a growth mindset and find a solution that leads me to do what my flesh doesn’t want to do now.

You know there is nothing better than to connect with Christ.  When we do, we sense we were built for Him, and we have found our home. So, find a way to do so.  

Sometimes what I have to do is connect to Him in a different way, and the variety helps my relationship with Him to thrive.

Return to the first post in the series here. Return to the second post in the series here.

Prayer: Why on earth do I sometimes want to be distant from you?  It is so insane. you love me. I love you. You designed me to work best when I am connected to you. Father, I am sorry I have let the world, the flesh, and the devil get in the way of connecting to you.  Thank you that I can learn from previous failures and I can grow. Thank you for paying for all the times I disconnected from you to indulge sin. Thank you that I can confess, repent, and obey you now.  I love when we are reconciled and walking together.  Thank you for being so incredibly loving and patient with me. You are so good!

Chew On This:

What is your battle plan for when you don't want to connect to Christ?