With Christmas three weeks away our attention to turns to the birth of our Savior. Last year I wrote a series on my favorite Christmas movies and shows (here is the link to one: http://wp.me/p1QSbw-53) – this year I want to write about something that has been on my mind a lot over the last few weeks.

Have you ever noticed we want the benefits of things in our lives but not the cost? For example we want the protection of the police but not the speed trap part. We want the paycheck and benefits from our employers but not the boss’ mandates. We want to be in shape but not the exercise part. Our children want their allowance but not the chores part. The list goes on and on.

For many of us it is the same with our Savior – we want the Savior part but not always the Lord part. In other words we want to benefit of spending eternity in Heaven but not the Lord-of-my-life on earth part.

We tend to view placing God as Lord of our lives here as limiting, restricting, and as a loss of freedom. But it is the quite opposite – there are incredible benefits like peace, joy, and freedom from sin. We often miss out on the benefits God has for us here on earth – the special benefits God reserves for those who place Him as Lord of their lives

Hebrews 12:11 “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Well I decided to put this to a test. I recently conducted an experiment by not putting God as Lord over my life. Normally I am pretty good about praying at least 3-4 days a week for 30-45 minutes but for the month of October I decided to do an experiment. I decided not to pray for 30 days and the results were telling:

1. After 1 week I noticed I was becoming more selfish.
2. After 2 weeks I started to become more negative.
3. After 3 weeks I had a noticeable loss of peace.
4. And after a month my ability to put others ahead of myself had waned considerably.

In just 30 days I lost many of the benefits of placing Christ as Lord brings. I was not at peace, I was moving closer and closer to the person I used to be, and most importantly I was incapable of loving as Jesus instructed us: John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

We cannot love this way on our own; it is impossible. We can only love this way if we place Christ as Lord of our lives and allow ourselves to be directed by the Holy Spirit – and we can only be directed by the Holy Spirit if we spend a considerable amount of time in prayer and in the Word on a consistent basis.

Romans 5:5 “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which was given to us.”

So how do we get the Lord part as well as the Savior part? How do we know if God is Lord of our lives? How do we focus on the Savior part and the Lord part this Christmas?

Stay tuned…

In His Service,

Ed

Related verse: Romans 8:26

Related post: The Real You?