Misplaced Loyalty

Bewildered, the man asked God, "But Father, why is it that these unbelievers are so prosperous and your own people are always struggling?!" God replied and said, "Unbelievers are very loyal. My people are not." "But God!” he said, "You don't know these unbelievers! Maybe it's because you're in Heaven. I’m on earth with them. They're not loyal at allll!" Then God broke it down to him; the average unbeliever may not be loyal to God, but he is certainly loyal to whatever he believes in. True story; I heard it from the horse's mouth...

This was the analogy he used: Give a group of unbelievers an equal amount of money to spend (say £100), and watch what they do with it. They’ll be very predictable. The alcoholic will go out and spend his money on drinks. The staunch Arsenal football fan will steer clear of the Chelsea merchandise store and head for the Arsenal one to get their latest kit or tickets to the next game. Similarly, the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fanatics will treat themselves to as many of the books and movies as they can afford, and the committed gambler will go to the bookies to place some bets, leaving the music lovers to splash out on the magazines, latest albums releases or concert tickets that they’ve had their eyes on for a while. Get the picture? Their commitment is such that some of those football fans are ready to die for the teams they support (I believe they’re also known as hooligans), and when push comes to shove for the gambler, the man is ready to sell his child!

Now, give the same £100 to a group of believers and watch them. What do they do with it? The SAME things the unbelievers did...! I generalise, but isn’t it funny how true this is in the lives of most professed believers? We have the entire back catalogue of an artiste like Jay-Z or Michael Jackson (I’ll be the first to put my hand up on this one and say I’ve been there), but we don't own a single album of Israel Houghton or Donnie McClurkin. We've devoured the autobiographies of Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama, but we haven't got a clue about Billy Graham or Oral Roberts. Our personal libraries are filled with books by the likes of Jackie Collins and Jeffrey Archer, but we own zero Christian literature. We sacrifice punctuality to accommodate the second half of a football match and spend money on alcohol every weekend when we go out, but if a church event clashes with anything else, the church event must give way - and were yet to be seen smiling when the offering basket comes round during the Sunday service (let’s not even go into the subject of tithes here). A good proportion of our time is spent with TVs blaring through our homes and we know the channels for CNN, MTV and ITV by heart, but we can't even hazard a guess as to what channel God TV is on - and we certainly couldn’t tell you what series they have aired this year. We’re amazing at cramming all sorts of events into our very tight schedules; parties, weddings, cinema & theatre trips, concerts...you name it... But ask us about the last kingdom event we’ve been at apart from church on a Sunday and we'll draw a blank – I’m talking no bible study, no conferences, no worship events...nothing!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not insinuating that we can’t take part in anything just because unbelievers do so. I believe there’s a lot one can learn from reading books. I also accept that sports and other recreation are good fun and the endless stream of events we attend is inevitable if we’re to maintain relationships with other people. I don’t even advocate the idea of Christians being out of touch with what’s going on in society, BUT if there is no difference between your habits and the next man’s bar the fact that you attend church on a Sunday morning, maybe it’s time to consider where your loyalties lie. God is not impressed. If He took a look at your bank statement, what would your spending patterns say about you?

I think one of the greatest issues facing the church today is an identity crisis. God’s people do not know who they are in Christ and we take our partnership with the Holy Spirit for granted. The challenge is that rather than take the time to mine God’s word and understand who HE says we are, the books we read and the music we listen to, become our tutors on love and romance. TV defines for us, how we should look and feel about ourselves. Movies tell us that we have to be in leotards and capes to wield supernatural powers and do the extraordinary, and the relationships they portray do nothing to prepare us for handling the ups and downs that we face in real life relationships. The party culture teaches us that we’re not having fun till we’re tipsy, and in some settings, it’s not even good enough except you’re tipsy on champagne. The more we expose ourselves to these things, the more we come away believing wrong things such as the lie that our level of joy is proportionate to the amount of money in our coffers or that sex outside of marriage is not a big deal, and in order to be successful, we have to be mean and trample on other people.

The truth is we don’t understand the magnitude of the power at work in us, for if we did, we would instantly be able to deduce that our assignment on earth must be very significant for God to have made that sort of power available to us. Jesus didn’t die on the cross to get us saved just so that we can while away time on earth till we’re snatched up to Heaven. You were created for a purpose; discovering & fulfilling that purpose should be what consumes you every day of your life. All the knowledge you need to fulfil purpose can be found in God’s word and the Bible is clear in Proverbs 1 that those who despise knowledge do so at their own peril. Society is not supposed to influence you. You are created in the image of God and are more influential than you think! Protect your ear and eye gates. The things you let in shape your world. Do not assume that you can repeatedly listen to a certain type of music or read and watch certain things without them having an effect on the way you think (and consequently, the way you live). Now could be a good time to examine the lyrics to some of the songs you sing. Should you really be singing that stuff?

Going back to the subject of prosperity, for the believer there is a God-given blueprint tucked away in the Bible (which covers more than just material wealth). There is no point flexing to accommodate sin just because you’re trying to prosper. What works for the unbeliever is not designed to work for you. Even if it appears to work for a while, you’ll soon find yourself facing the consequences. If you know more about God and His word, it will deflect you from making error-prone choices. Furthermore, you can’t even watch the next man who’s using legitimate means to grow from strength to strength unhindered. If he’s not a believer, he’s not a threat to the kingdom of darkness, so no demon is looking to stress him. The enemy knows what a true believer would do with money if he got it (i.e. use it to advance the kingdom of God & bring God glory), so he’ll fight tooth and nail to keep you from attaining the same heights. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee; the battle against you is not the same battle he’s facing and in the long run, you can only win if you do things God’s way.

So what IS God’s way? The Bible tells us in Psalm 1 that the man who will prosper in whatever he does is the man that doesn’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly (and this is the point at which one might marvel at believers who take advice from their ungodly friends on critical matters like their marriages and relationships), doesn’t stand submissive & inactive in the path of sinners and doesn’t relax and rest where the scornful gather. It also divulges that such a man delights in God’s word and meditates on it day and night; that’s the man to whom true all-round prosperity that stands the test of time, comes. So, if we say we’re believers, then let’s do whatever it takes to sit at the Master’s feet and strengthen our relationships with God. The next time you whip out your card (or cash) to pay for something, need to determine how to spend your time or find yourself about to make a decision or choosing to take an action, put yourself through the loyalty test. I’ve said all of that to say this: we live to please an audience of ONE - and that’s God!