Last week, we discussed briefly how many Christians in the world don’t have the level of religious freedom that we have in the United States. For those of us not currently facing jail time, loss of a job, or daily threats to our life and the lives of those we love because we worship Jesus Christ, I think we face a different struggle. Many of us aren’t “all in”.

What I mean by that is if you are facing persecution daily you have to make that decision EVERY DAY to follow Jesus. There are no “days off”. You know full well that every day you are suiting up for warfare…and it potentially costs you everything.

But, if you aren’t facing that persecution, there is a tendency (maybe I’m just speaking for myself here) to be lackadaisical in developing our relationship with Jesus. We don’t think we have to be dialed in every moment because there aren’t any imminent threats.

Boy, are we wrong!! Spiritual warfare is happening everywhere. We can either be engaged or not engaged but that doesn’t mean that the battle isn’t raging. “For we do not wrestle against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” Ephesians 6:12.

Due to material prosperity, we can often be lulled into a false sense of spiritual security. We start living our lives how we want to live our lives–satisfying our needs instead of focusing on hard things like growing into a mature man or woman of Christ. We are tempted to be spiritual Peter Pans–never growing up in our faith.

Our challenge this week is to think through our routines. What in our daily routines have we just grown to accept as parts of our days? What can we replace that with that would help us live out our faith in every way.

How can we grow to be ALL IN for Christ?!

More to come…
Jeremy