"31 Days" ChallengeBilly JoelBrandi CarlileChristiancontentContent in ChristcontentmentconvictedHebrews 5Hebrews 5:11-14lyricsmusiconly human
31 DAYS: CONTENT IN CHRIST (Post 6 - Conviction Via Music)
I connect with music. It often drives me, motivates me, encourages me, saddens me...but I can identify with most music. And whether the music is designated "Christian" or not, our God is powerful enough to use any music to speak volumes to our hearts.
Today, I was CONVICTED by music. God spoke through his "still, soft voice" through the work of the Holy Spirit in my life to convict me of my sinful nature...via a lost songwriter on my iTunes.
"Sorry, I'm only human.
You know me.
Grown up, oh no - guess again...
Progress and changing,
Growing, then giving up
Somehow, we're never quite prepared."
Brandi Carlile
These lyrics spoke to me in my struggle to constantly find my contentment in Christ. I am indeed, only human ("only human, oo - oo!" Billy Joel...seriously, I feel like I'm in a musical today!). Anyway...because I am human, I have the common human struggle to mature and grow in Christ against the tug of my rotting, sinful flesh that constantly seeks to pull me back into the old ways of thinking and living. I can think that I've grown and that I've matured, but then I have to guess again. Why? Because low and behold, I've messed up again!
We all do this.
We make progress in our journey toward contentment in Christ. We grow by leaps and bounds. And then we give up. Maybe we are tempted to find our contentment in something else - a personal accomplishment, a significant other, heck - even comfort food! Somehow, no matter how hard we try, we are never quite prepared for the temptations to find our pleasure and satisfaction wholly in this life rather than in our life in Christ.
As my head was swirling with these thoughts, a passage of Scripture came to mind: Hebrews 5:11-14. For those of y'all that go to church with me, this passage is the reason our small group is named "Steak & Taters" - for it speaks to our need to be eating of the "solid food" of the Word rather than trying to sustain ourselves on milk only. In this passage, the writer states, "...you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for is is an infant. but solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil."
YOWZA! This passage totally rebukes us in our pursuit of righteousness. There are many areas in life where we can be implementing what Christ is teaching us; however, we often shrink back in selfishness and do not practice these things. Wow.
As we challenge ourselves to grow amidst the temptations that surround us, let us cling to Christ!
Lemme' leave you with yet another lyric that doesn't "technically" speak of God...but I'm going to choose to capitalize the "Him" in the lyrics because this is how I allow the song to speak to me.
"When the gusts came around to blow me down,
I held on as tightly as You held on to me."
The Cinematic Orchestra
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