No Bargain Basement Relationship { Guest Post by Miranda}

Say hi to Miranda. She blogs over at Young and In Progress. By day she works in the office world but by night she works to establish her career as a novelist and freelance writer.

Hey there, fellow Jesus Freaks!

I discovered this lovely little blog a couple of months back, and what a blessing it was. Through Blogs by Christian Women, I have come across some of my favorite daily read bloggers, and been encouraged by the posts. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I wanted to contribute to this great little movement.

If you’re a blogger, you know how stressful it can sometimes be to create a post that you feel is meaningful enough. Maybe “stressful” is a bit of a strong word…but there is definitely that want to share something viewed as meaningful. What I’m writing about today is something that just sort of fell into my lap a few weeks ago. I immediately knew that God wanted me to use it in one of my blog posts or freelance articles, so when I was asked to write a September guest post for BCW, I knew it was the right time to use this little nugget of wisdom.

I occasionally attend a Bible study for young adults on Sunday evenings. On this particular summer Sunday, we were discussing the book Spiritual Warfare by Jack Kuhatschek. It was a great study book, and while there were many valid points to contemplate, this particular quote just really grabbed my attention and held my thought process for several minutes. It read:

“Jesus says pick up your cross and follow me. Satan says put down your cross and pick up your crown now while it’s on sale.”

How mind blowing is this? Especially for Christian women in particular. As women, we often find ourselves in the “bargain mindset.” We want what is most convenient, at the best possible price. It is one thing to apply this way of thinking to retail merchandise, but it becomes a completely new ball game when this way of thinking begins to apply to our faith as well.

We live in a society that encourages us to live a lifestyle in which things come as easily as possible. This simply cannot be the case for our relationship with God. God is so much more than some handbag that you recently fell in love with at Macy’s. What if you sat around waiting for God to always come to you, the way that you sit around and wait for that purse to go on sale? How would this make God feel? How would this make us feel about our role as a Christian?

Luke 9:23 says, “Then He said to them all: “Whomever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Jack Kuhatschek wasn’t just making things up when he use this little tidbit in his book. The second we chose to follow Jesus, we committed to pick up that cross and live every day to our full potential in Christ. Our words, our actions, and our attitudes need to exude the Christ-like behavior that we would exhibit if we were literally walking right beside Jesus each day. While we may not physically be “following” in His footsteps, we still bare our crosses by surrendering to His will, sharing the Word, and exemplifying faith-filled actions.

Think back to that purse that I mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago. It may never go on sale. If you’re waiting for that, then that bag may never be yours. But what if you made a promise to save a little money each day, and in a sense, earned that arm candy?

Now apply this to your relationship with God. What is really going to happen if you’re expecting Him to do all of the work? Where will your relationship with Him be? It may not be good, right? However, if you spend time with Him daily, and make an effort to have that relationship, you will be able to experience a love that you never thought could actually exist. He will help you accomplish more than you could have ever fathomed
.

Next time Satan tempts you to take a shortcut in your faith, tell him to back off. We have been told that Satan is a liar, and I’m willing to bet that he knows absolutely nothing about a stylish purse, let alone something as important as a relationship with Jesus.

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