WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE SOO COMPLICATED?
Why does everything have to be so complicated? Have you ever asked yourself that question? I know I have. As life goes on it seems to get more and more complicated with layer after layer of details piling up until it seems unmanageable. This makes one long for the simple life.
Allow me to introduce you to a song that has captured my heart and my desire for simplicity. It’s called Simple Pursuit and was written by Matt Redman. Here is the first verse and chorus:
God take us back, the place we began
The simple pursuit of nothing but You
The innocence of a heart in Your hands
God take us back, oh God, take us back
To an unswerving faith in the power of Your name
A heart beating for Your kingdom to reign
A church that is known for Your presence again
God take us back
Nothing and no one comes close to You
Nothing could ever come close
Nothing and no one; it’s You, and You only
Nothing could ever come close
When I heard the song for the first time I immediately knew it would be a favorite of mine. This song reminded me of the message Jesus had for the church of Ephesus found in Revelation, chapter 2. This church honored Jesus with their deeds, but Jesus told them they had forsaken Him as their first love. Wow. That would be a hard thing to hear from your Savior. The church at Ephesus had left their simple pursuit of their Savior and become satisfied with going through the motions with passionless service and activity.
I am thankful that this passage does not end here. Jesus prescribed a remedy for the church’s heart problem. This same remedy is for anyone that is overwhelmed with details and feels their relationship with Jesus growing cold.
Jesus said to the church at Ephesus and He says to us today, “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” To get back to a simple pursuit of Jesus it is important to remember our Savior and what it was like when we first trusted Him. This will give us an idea how “far you have fallen.” When a person first places their faith in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior it is normally a time of joy, gratitude, and amazement in the amazing grace of God. When our life and faith gets too complicated we forget the joy of our salvation. Some of you reading this article may not know the amazement that I am writing about.
If there has never been a moment in your life when you trusted Jesus let me invite you to one of the many Bible believing churches in Dalhart. We celebrate Jesus every week as we gather to worship. You are certainly welcomed at First Baptist Dalhart. You would be my honored guest.
The second part of Jesus remedy is to “repent and do the thing you did at first.” Repent means to change your mind or change directions. Simply put, repentance is turning back to Jesus and simply pursuing Him while doing the things we did when our faith was new and fresh. Do you remember a time when you worshipped from the heart, when you were growing in your faith, when you served Him without hesitation and with joy, and when you desired to talk to others about your faith? If these are distant memories, they don’t have to be. It’s time to get back to a Simple Pursuit of your Savior.
This article originally appeared in the Dalhart Texan and was written by Sean Vickers.
