Questions and Excuses: Part II

The following verses from the Bible have convicted me over and over again.  These are things God commands me, as a follower of Christ, to do.  Am I really doing these things?  Or am I coming up with excuses to avoid doing these things? : 

In Luke 9:23 "The fact is we were called by Jesus to give up everything.  His call to come and take up the cross".  I ask myself "Am I really giving up everything?"


In Katie Davis' book I am perplexed, stunned and convicted as I read what I thought were my own thoughts.  I thought that how I felt was secluded to my own life.  Reading someone else's thoughts that are exactly the same as mine gives validation the Spirit of God is leading me and I need to follow.  Let me give you an example:  In chapter six she writes as she is beside a sick girl in Uganda "Why do I have so much?  And why have I always had so much?  And do they [people of the western world] even know that far, far away from the luxuries of the western world a little songbird of a girl is fighting for her life?  The roles could have easily been reversed."  Doug and I have wrestled with that exact question of why we have been given so much when others are given nothing...am I giving much to others?  Luke 12:48 "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." 

A bigger question is "Why does God allow this to happen to people?"  Here's one answer "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life" (John 9:3).     

So, as we end another joyous celebration of our Savior's birth and a new year begins, what excuses will I stop using so God can use me?  I am excited about how God will use me and my family.  I am also human, and I am scared once I say "yes".  But the sad part is, I think I'm scared because of what He will ask me to give up...which really isn't mine in the first place.

 "Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do.  God , who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, know what we know, and holds up responsible to act"  Proverbs 24:12.