How is the leash training going? I am continuing to practice too!
I was thinking today about all the different standards in life… some appreciated and some no so much.
I appreciate building standards, material building standards, food standards, water quality standards, safety standards for automobiles, and most legal standards but the standards I can’t appreciate are the ones we try to live up to, compare ourselves to and we allow to dictate our lives.
Ever notice once a standard gets old or has been accomplished, people try to up the standards in their life but they are never satisfied?
And do standards really change a person for the better?
Standards that we allow to dictate our lives are (when examining them a little closer) are terms. They are ways in which we try to find acceptance with people who may or may not be fulfilled themselves.
Society’s standards seem to be pretty shallow most of the time. Ever been someplace where the standard is to use foul language, drink, smoke, or “out do” the previous person’s story? (I call those big fish stories)
Those standards are “approval” standards. They come from a selfish mindset to “Fit in”.
Compare your life with someone else and you become the loser and the one missing out.
Imagine not living to a standard. What would it be like? Imagine the freedom it would provide your life if you weren’t trying to live up to some standard. The pressure would be off and you have room to be enlightened instead of stuck in some box you were never made for.
Standards that dictate don’t just speak of your want of approval from others but speak of your prejudice against yourself or someone else. You dress like everyone else because you feel like you will be better received that way. You like what he/she is wearing but you don’t want to dress like he/she because they aren’t well received by the group you are in.
Are you allowing the world to define you?
We were designed to be uniquely different from one another. It’s too bad many of us don’t realize that.
The body of Christ has many parts. They don’t all have the same roles or gifts. Not everyone can be a liver, a white or red blood cell, a lung, a hand or one of the many different glands in the body of Christ.
It is only realizing these God given uniqueness’s -can the wheels of the church move smoothly and successfully as they follow the Spirit of God’s lead.
We know by God’s word we all fall short to God’s glorious standard.
Romans 3:23-25 says “For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard.
Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us...”
The only standard we should live by is the Spirit of God -who had made the simple message of the gospel finally “real” to us. We should live according to our faith that has set us free from the standards of this world.
Living by our faith we aren’t so easily led astray. The enemy of our soul is always looking for a way in… he’s always looking for some sort of foothold or welcome mat. It is not under him to use someone with clout, power, looks, or even sex appeal to try to bend us to some kind of standard.
Isaiah 59:19 So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.
By living by Spirit of God, we are free of that chain or stumbling block of some meaningless standard.
And if we happen to blindly seek some human standard- we will find it meaningless and unfulfilling and we will have to make a choice to chase other standards (which will be like chasing the wind) or come back to the faith.
Ecclesiastes 2:11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. It was like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.
I have found that living by some sort of human standard- it actually cuts our effectiveness of a Christian to little or nothing. If you strive to live like everyone else how are you any different? Jesus never lived to some human standard and never seemed to mind to do the very opposite. He took those opportunities to show his followers how they should really live.
Hold firm to the faith. It’s the only thing worth having in this life. It freed you from the standards of this world that only put you in a box and frustrates you to no living end. (Yes it can be very frustrating when others want to push and subject you to their standards and fears and ideals but live in peace with others the best you can while still living in your freedom in Christ Jesus)
If others want to deny themselves of the things that really matter and live according to other people’s standards… have pitty on them but don’t join them.
I have to continue to remind myself if God sent his Son because we couldn’t fulfill his standards and said it is by our faith in Jesus Christ that we are “made right” then I must trust in Him to live by it. I rather be right with God then people -who are here today and gone tomorrow.
I must stay free from pointless thoughts and ideals that don’t even matter in the end and often can lead to sin. Even the things that are deemed “religious in nature” will have little or no affect in changing a person if they are just participating in the activity because everyone else is doing it.
Be free of the world’s standards by living by THE standard above all standards… The FAITH of Jesus Christ.
