Get up, go to work, come home, perform the evening routine, maybe a vacation or two each year and call it life.
I have known this truth about most people for many decades now, life for them is the security of sameness with excuses tossed in for good measure. There is little desire for growth, for growth would mean leaving the rut. This has been exponentially increased within many of them in these days with the advent of fear in the form of the possible unexpected mandates that may be placed at any moment upon them without much warning at all. They have lived in a cage their entire life and this advent of being moved even deeper into it concerns them very little, it is just another excuse to stay in the rut.
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21) If you have nothing to lose my friends, then you have nothing to lose. If indeed your life is hid in Christ, (Col. 3:3) if you have been crucified with Christ, (Gal. 2:20) then your life is not your own, but I offer you this, how many who claim Jesus Christ have left that rut, truly offered the entirety of their lives to Him, and how many continue in that worldly security they have envisioned, hoping that the Lord does not call them to go with Him in a way they do not know.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2) This means much more than just saying you will follow Him wherever He leads you and living in a self-centered hope that He doesn’t call you where you don’t want to go. Most who profess Him as Lord may indeed attend a church on a fairly regular basis, they may perhaps read the Scriptures occasionally, they may even attempt to live a life unspotted from the world, but they have no desire whatsoever to leave the world of security and comfort that they have worked so diligently to achieve.
“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” (2 Thess. 3:10) So they do the 9-5 five or six days a week, rarely giving pause to contemplate the Most High. Their employment field is not just a means to an end, it is their security, and it is a rut they have no desire to leave.
“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” (Matt. 6:26) But these individuals will put that verse in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 of not working as a caveat, “God has given me employment so I can …” And from there comes the reasonings, the excuses.
I don’t know anywhere in the Scriptures where the Lord says, “If you don’t go out and make money, you won’t eat,” but that is the verse that these individuals will cling to, and the subtlety of Satan has once again been shown for what it is, a lie. “Adam, because you and your wife have disobeyed me, now I am no longer going to provide food for you, now you have to go out and work for it.”
These individuals I have spoken of here do not even realize that they have found a supposed security in the curse laid upon mankind. “I love you, but all you’re going to get for forty years is manna.” People in churches sing songs about manna, not steak and eggs.
“And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” (Matt. 19:29) But the excuses won’t let them, the rut is too comfortable, it provides for their needs, it provides for their wants, it offers them a hope of reaching an age with enough money to not have to remain in that rut. Then maybe they will follow Him, when the body is too worn out to do what they want to do, when the security is set aside in a bank somewhere, just in case.
“For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:14) And here is the reason why. Here is what the majority of them are saying, and they either do not recognize it, or will not admit it to themselves, “Lord, use me, in the way that I want to be used.” The Lord will not use a vessel that will not allow itself to be emptied out first.
