A Holy Pursuit

Written by Alecia Simersky

I’ve sort of had a back and forth conversation with God since I gave my life to him 15 years ago. It goes something like this, “Lord, I want to live your way and do what is pleasing in your sight. Show me and search me, what in my life is not pleasing to you?”
He eventually shows me, and I go, “Really, you want me to do what? I think I’m hearing You wrong, bad connection!”
I remember one day several years ago I had prayed the prayer above and was sitting quietly just in case He responded when a popular television show flashed across my mind. It was a TV show that a lot of people watched.  That I watched.
Did he really mean for me to give up my favorite crime show, what could be wrong with it?!
There was drama, there was comedy…and there was casual sex, lust, raunchy jokes.  
Ugh.                                                            
I wanted to obey God and live a pure life, but I also didn’t want to cross into legalistic territory. I wanted to always make sure I was living in freedom.
In her book Dance, Stand, Run Jess Connolly says this: “If we could see the fullness of our sin and the depth of His grace we’d dance. If we knew our true identity as holy daughters, of God made right with Him and called to stay set apart for His glory and abundance, we’d stand firm. And if we fully grasped both of these things, you wouldn’t be able to stop the women of God from running on mission.”
If you’re like me, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in what the world says is normal, and even other Christians, that I forget that God sets the standard. And if He is impressing upon my heart a certain show, movie, or even music isn’t for my good then I should sit up and pay attention.
There have been times I’ve refused to watch certain shows. And in my slow obedience (ok, fine, disobedience) I continued watching. I would rationalize that I really didn’t see anything wrong with what I was watching, and there were WAY worse things.
(Isn’t that just like sin? To rationalize it so your sin doesn’t seem so bad.)
I hate to admit that I didn’t give up that show, my human brain couldn’t understand why, so I ignored the Holy Spirit’s prompting.
The sad truth is I was more worried about what other people would say and my reasons for not watching the show than I was about what God said. I didn’t want to stand out as an overtly Christian (some might use the term, Bible Thumper) or that girl who didn’t watch certain shows ‘cause God told her not to.
Yep, for someone who was worried about not walking in freedom, I sure wasn’t walking in too much of it.
 
Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”
As God’s holy daughters we are called to a different standard and it won’t always make sense and others will not understand, but stand firm anyways.
I don’t always walk the walk well, and there’s grace, but the longer I’ve been with Jesus the more I understand that He knows me better than I know myself and if He’s asking me to stay away from something it’s always for my good.
And if others don’t understand, they can take it up with God!
“On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.”
(The Solid Rock, Edward Mote)