I can see you all out there…heads cocked to one side…arched eyebrows…squinted eyes…and many of you are going “HUH?…Where on Earth is she going with this one?”

Here’s where…

I got to thinking about an old relationship.  (One that obviously didn’t work out too well.)  This man had always ‘seemed’ to like my son, but it dawned on me that he never really ‘liked’ him or ‘disliked’ him – he really never knew him or acknowledged him at all.  Rather, he overlooked the fact that he even existed.

It’s a lot like our sins.  Not so much the outward, obvious things like drinking, drugs, gambling, adultery, cussing, etc. – the ones that everyone can ‘see’ and hold us accountable for.  More like the discrete, inward things that are a bit less noticeable, like bitterness, selfishness, thoughtlessness, insecurity, dependency issues, obsessions, etc.  We tend to hide them away, plan around them and in general overlook their existence.

Maybe we honestly don’t realize that what we are doing is sinful?

Maybe we realize that we are being sinful, but think that if we ignore the behavior, it will go away on its own?

Or perhaps, we think that following the ‘general’ guidelines in the Bible and going to church on Sunday will be ‘enough’.  Why work any harder than we have to – right?

Personally, the closer I draw to God, the more I want to refine myself and strive to make my Father proud!  I want to be a vessel for His love!  I want to exemplify His grace and take as many dear souls to Heaven with me as I can!  I want to be ‘on fire’ for my Savior.

I really like the word ‘strive’!  It reminds me of running track in High School!  You were certain to get hot and sweaty!  You were certain to endure aches and pains you never knew before!  You were certain to get tired, maybe even defeated at times!  But…none of that would keep you from striving to reach your goal!  Striving to reach the finish line!

What we all seriously need to do, every day, is to pray for conviction.  We honestly and sincerely, with a whole heart, need to ask our Father for enlightenment, guidance and the strength and grace to overcome the behaviors that are unpleasing in His sight!

24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”  25 “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ “  26 “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; “  27 and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS.’ “  28 “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. “  29 “And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. “  30 “And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.”
[Luke 13:24-30]