God Said, "LET GO!"

(By: Roger Burgess) 

When one accepts Jesus Christ as one's Savior and Lord, what can one expect? If one is truly sincere about letting God rule the throne of one's heart, you can be assured that God the Father's highest will for your life is to conform you into the image of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Romans 8:28-29). God wants you to be Christ-like. He desires for you to have the attributes of Himself.

This journey of being made Christ-like is often a rocky road. Spiritual growth does not come easy. Everything in our mind can rebel against the process of being made Christ-like, yet one day in eternity we will look back and be most appreciative for what God, in His infinite wisdom and love, has accomplished in us during our brief journey here on earth. Let's take a brief look at one person's journey thus far of what being made Christ-like has held for him, and glean from his experiences.

I wasn't raised in what you would call a Christian home, and it wasn't until I was in the Air Force, during the Vietnam conflict, that I really tried to find out about God. I was stationed in California, where drugs were easily obtainable. The friends I hung around with were against the war, and we hated military life. To escape, we got stoned as often as we could.

After three years of this lifestyle, I was getting burned out. I wasn't getting as high from drugs like at first, but rather getting more depressed and angry. During this time I would read books about the supernatural, UFOs, unexplainable happenings-things of this nature; looking for something that would give me answers. All I knew was that man's ways seemed to always lead to fighting and killing, and getting stoned still seemed to be the best way out for me, or at least that's what I thought.

But at one of the biggest parties we had, Dave, a friend of mine, was passing joints of marijuana by, not taking hits like he normally would be. Later that night I got him aside and asked him what was going on. He proceeded to tell me how he had met this Christian girl at a gas station, and she told him about Jesus Christ. Then he went to church with her and invited Christ into his life.

As he told me all this, I knew he was sincere. I also knew there was now something about him that was different. I saw a peace in him that I had not seen before - a calm assurance that he had done the right thing.

Dave invited me to supper at a friend's house the following evening. I had questions about God that I wanted answered from a knowledgeable source, and Dave felt that this couple he knew might just be who I was looking for.

Later that evening, they ended up inviting me to go to church with them the following Sunday. As the week progressed, I grew more apprehensive about going, but I ended up going anyway. And am I ever thankful I did! The Holy Spirit tugged on my heartstrings that day and I invited Jesus Christ into my heart after the church service. When I did that, the pent up anger and frustration I had been carrying for years was suddenly gone. Everything around me took on a special newness. It was like I was really alive for the first time. And what really amazed me was that after that day, there was no desire for drugs. When I'd read my Bible, the words would mean so much. Each day was spent with a walking, talking relationship with the Holy Spirit. To actually experience God talking with me was more than I could have ever hoped to attain. Plus, the messages I heard in church seemed to be custom made just for me.

I began to associate with people who were not interested in the things of the Lord.

I wish I could say that life remained the same as it was at first. I was released from the Air Force ten months early, three months from the day I was saved. Returning to Michigan, I enrolled in college. There I allowed my walk with Jesus Christ to be torn down by bits and pieces. In my ignorance of how one can so easily wander from one's personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I began to associate with people who were not interested in the things of the Lord. And I found it so easy to quit feeding my spirit and mind with spiritual food that comes from feasting on God's Word from the Bible. I never denied God by any means during that time; I just let Him fall way behind my center of attention.

Roughly 12 years passed with what I call being out of fellowship with Christ. Christ never left me-I left Him (Hebrews 13:5). My wife and I had a shaky marriage by the ninth year of living as husband and wife. We were at odds with each other in so many important areas, arguing frequently. I think we both felt we loved each other, but we were not content inside. One night things came to a head, and when the night ended, the full realization came to me that there would never be anything I could say or do that would straighten out our many problems the way we were heading.

The next morning I was in the bathroom, sitting on the "you-know-what", mulling over what had happened the night before. I decided to pray that my wife would become a Christian and take on the traits of a Christian woman. It was the only thing I hadn't tried. I don't recall of ever having a prayer answered as quickly as that one got answered. As God be my witness, the Spirit of God spoke these words to me: "If you want her to be a Christian, don't you think you had better start acting like one yourself and give her an example to follow? Why would she want to be like you?"

Yes - God spoke firmly, but not in a condemning way. And suddenly a peace came over me. Then the Holy Spirit imparted revelation to me that the love I had for my wife was not His definition of love, and then He told me I was to love her by His standards, not mine (Please read 1 Cor. 13:4-7). I was to love her unconditionally, no matter what she did or did not do. As God loves the sinner, but hates sin, I too was to look beyond her faults and see her as a special creation of God.

A couple of days later I sat down with her and shared my heart. As we talked, I told her from that day forward her actions and attitude toward me were not going to affect my happiness anymore, because now my relationship with God was going to determine my state of mind and spirit. He wanted me to realize Christ was truly my life-source-not my wife, my job, my children, or anything else that I was relying on to bring me what little contentment and inner-satisfaction I had. And I told her I was going to love her unconditionally with His love, no matter what she did or did not do.

I told her that she was responsible for her own destiny, and I wasn't.

And before our conversation ended, I also told her that she was responsible for her own destiny, and I wasn't. One day she would also stand before God and answer for what she did on earth, and I'm no longer to judge her. I also said that because I was now trusting Christ to have His way in her life, I too would trust her to do right in God's eyes. Basically, I turned her over to God for the first time in my life. I let go.

Incredibly, the next few months brought many changes, revealing God's faithfulness in our lives. And glory of all glories, before long, my wife gave her life to Jesus Christ.

Now we are growing as a family the way God designed families to grow-God as the center of our focus and we are trusting our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to lead and guide us each step of the way, and is it ever exciting! Difficult at times . . . yes, but eternally worthwhile. God has given Christians everything they need, we've found, to overcome every obstacle we encounter. We have Jesus Christ in us, our hope of glory. (I Colossians 1:27; Philippians 4:13)

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Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-21 is our assurance)