Watered Down

Couple of days ago, during my study time, I caught myself reminiscing about the old days. I started to think about Friday nights playing football in the Meade.  After we finished pummeling the opponents, we would all go and hang at McDonalds.  I can remember eating my food and talking about the game and before I left to go home I would always get a refill of my drink, usually Coke. When I arrived home I would crash and usually wake up some time in the night dying of thirst.  Luckily I would have my drink right next to my bed and I would lean over and guzzle the entire Coke.  But after drinking it I would always noticed that something was different about my Coke. In the night, the ice in the Coke melted and it became watered down.  What was once a refreshing, bubbly, and great tasting beverage was now a dull, flavorless liquid.

God spoke to me about this story.  Too many of us have become watered-down Christians.  We were once “on-fire”, radical and courageous Christ-followers but over time we have become the soft, mundane, “just-getting by” Christians.  This change did not happen overnight, but there is one thing to blame, “nothing”.  Nothing is to blame for this transformation.  See, going back to my Coke story, the Coke became watered down because the ice in the drink melted and as we all know ice is frozen water.  Have you ever looked on the back of a water bottle and read the Nutrition Facts?  The Nutrition Facts of water reads:

                                Calories                 0%

                                Total Fat               0%

                                Sodium                 0%

                                Total Carbs          0%

                                Protein                 0%

 Water has nothing in it and when nothing is added to something it becomes diluted.  When you add nothing to your Christian walk, you become watered down.  You lose your zeal, your vigor, and your intensity.  To add nothing means not reading the Word, praying to God, or giving.  This story might seem a little elementary to some, but I know how it feels to be watered down, I have been there.  It happens slowly but surely.  Life goes by 100 mph and we have no time to read or pray.  Don’t forget the economy is bad, so we definitely don’t have any money to give.  Here is a scripture that will help you out.

 Matthew 6:33, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.”

Seek means to passionately look for something until you find it. We need to passionately seek God by constantly praying, fervently reading the Word and cheerfully giving. And notice how God instructs us on what to seek.  He tells us to seek the “Kingdom of God”.  In Greek the scripture reads not as the “Kingdom of God”, referring to an actual place, but to read it as the “Kingdom” of God, where “kingdom” means dominion.  So this means we are not to seek the earthly things but we are to seek the God who has dominion, supreme authority, over the earthly things.

 I encourage you to stop adding nothing to your walk with Christ and start adding something by seeking the God of supreme dominion.  Read, Pray and Give.

 James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and deceive yourselves. Do what it says.