Cling to Christ

“Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,” (Joshua 22:5 ESV).

I’m clingy.

I know clingy is not considered “cool.” So, I’m bearing my un-coolness as I type.

I cling to a considerable number of things that ultimately leave me feeling incomplete and craving more to cling to.

Through God’s unrelenting, never-ending, boundless grace over my life, these clingy tendencies have been carried to the light of truth, magnifying their sinful nature against the truth of God’s Word. The continued sanctification in the believer’s life is such a beautiful journey.

My compulsion to cling to counterfeits of what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellence, and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8) is rooted in a corrupted flesh marked by the fall of man in Genesis 3.

But.

I don’t have to live in this corruption that attempts to consume my inner man. Christ has overcome; therefore, all believers have overcome. “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5 ESV).

As a true believer, we should not be compelled to turn from Christ or continue to collide with corruption.

Christ convicts and corrects His child continually, with love, because He loves us.

Though these truths are ever-present in my heart, corrupted compulsions still attempt to compete for my concentration and devotion.

These corrupted compulsions are common among believers and the world. They’ve made their way into the Christian Culture with less than a second thought. But they convey danger and compromise.

Comparisons.

Comforts.

Control.

Consumption.

I have clung to these corrupted counterfeits for too long.

I cling to comparisons. I am ashamed to confess that comparisons consume at times. From comparing my family to others, my clothes, my home, particular abilities, or even difficulties in my life. Whether comparing through a lens of envy that teeters toward covetousness or one that exudes conceit. Both are contrary to God’s Word, therefore sinful. We live in a culture that thrives on “manifestations” of the mind and mouth or known as a “name it and claim it” concept that has infiltrated our Christian Culture. If we dig, the root of comparing, or attempting to call something physical into existence that ceases to exist in your world, is really just a lack of contentment. We desire something that is not ours and may never be ours, or we are discontent with something seemingly unsavory the Lord has ordered to our lives. There’s a greed in us that cries for more of something good, or cries for less of something deemed bad. I find myself comparing all the above when I am weak and forsaking my Belt of Truth, lending to a complete lack of contentment. The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy about contentment in his first letter to him. “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world,” (1 Timothy 6:6-7 ESV).

As believers, we should be content with what God has sovereignly arranged for our lives. When we are content, the comparison games that birth corruption will cease.

I cling to comfort. I not only cling to comfort, I crave comfort. Don’t we all? Left un-checked, this clinging and craving for comfort can be catastrophic in my daily abiding in the Lord. My flesh-fueled need for comfort can cultivate an attitude brimming with complaints. It’s too hot. It’s too cold. A particular person is difficult to be around, hence I’m uncomfortable. A particular work I’m called to is difficult and forces me out of my clearly constructed comfort zones. The overwhelming need to always live in comfort births avoidance to hard obedience’s I know the Holy Spirit is drawing me to. If we’re honest, the incessant need to always feel comfortable (physically, emotionally, spiritually) is self-centered at its core. The Bible is full of imperatives for the believer to lay aside selfishness and put others before yourself. The Apostle Paul says it best in his letter to the church at Philippi. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others,” (Philippians 2:1-4 ESV).

When we cling to the comforts of this world in such a way that it quenches unity with the Holy Spirit or leads us into disobedience to God’s Word, we are sinning. Selfish motives usually center around clinging to comforts. Paul’s encouragement regarding these stands for the believer today.

I cling to control. This is not an aggressive form of control, but an, “I want to know how everything is going to work out,” kind of control. I cling to a type of control that desires plans always be made and followed through with by each party involved. It’s a clinging to this control that costs me much near daily. It costs me peace. It costs me wasted time dwelling in a behavior that doesn’t convey trusting God. It’s expensive, this corrupt clinging to control. It’s humiliating to confess that I’ve spent countless hours chasing control of things that are un-controllable by any human. In my sinful flesh the need to cling to this control showcases my momentary conduct that contradicts trusting in our Holy, very trustworthy, and incredibly good God. At the core of this corrupt need to cling to control is temporarily questioning our perfectly trustworthy God while I may be facing a frustration or difficulty. If you know me, that’s confusing. Because my mantra for years has been, “I Trust my God.” I. do. But. Sometimes. I. Struggle. The confusion. It’s the war between the flesh and spirit. I yearn to perfectly live out the commands of Proverbs 3:5-6. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Clinging to control is unwise and contorts our view of our sovereign God Who controls everything perfectly. I am in control of nada. Therefore, my puny attempts to cling to control are pathetic and pointless. Lord, help me to trust You, always and in all ways.

I cling to consumption. We’re all consumers. But the questions we need to bring to the forefront of our mind often are, what am I consuming? And am I glorifying God in my consumption? Our culture cultivates much room for compromise to convictions in the form of consumption for the believer. The thing about consumption—whether it be what we watch, what we listen to, what we read, what we eat, what we buy—It can be relative and what is sin for someone may not be sin for another. Obviously, as a believer, with the power of the Holy Spirit and the black and white instruction of scripture, we know the things we should never entertain. But there is the relative area of consumption, that if not on guard, the believer can find themselves in a season of a curated pattern of consumption that does not glorify God. I’ve been there. Many times, and in many ways. I’ve clung to the consumption of food, shopping, binging on a show, idolizing downtime. This is just to name a few. I praise my God for calling my attention to continued patterns of consumption that were not glorifying to Him or promoting holiness in my life. These corrupt consumptions cluttered my days and led to a level of squandering of time, health, and finances. We should find extreme comfort in convictions from the Holy Spirit. The simple consumption list above is completely acceptable to the world’s standards. The overwhelming, “if it feels good do it,” mindset can be contagious, even to the believer. But we know that we are not of this world, and we are consecrated in truth. Jesus tells us this in John 17:16-19 in His prayer to God the Father. “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

As believers we should be continually separating ourselves from all that doesn’t cultivate a pattern of holy living. Our consumption should center on what aims to please our Heavenly Father. Consuming His Word and truths. Consuming our time with work that is pleasing to Him. Consuming food and drink that honors our body for that is the temple of the Holy Spirit and we are commanded to glorify God with it (1 Cor. 6:19-20). I love what the Apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth, “So, whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV).

Though we may all struggle with forms of clinging: clinging to comparisons, comforts, control, and consumptions, we serve a God Who doesn’t leave us in our corrupt compulsions of clinging to things that do not please Him. He is with us until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). And because He is with us, always pursuing us to Himself, we have the holy ability to abide in Christ. Always.

With His ever-present help, we can,

Clear the comparisons.

Clear the comforts.

Clear the control.

Clear the consumptions.

And Cling to Christ.

I Trust my God, I Trust my God, I Trust my God

Ardently His,

Jess

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