Simplicity in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3)

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3

“the simplicity that is in Christ”? That makes it sound like our relationship with Christ should be an easy thing! I know for myself this is not the case. Up until a few months ago, it seemed like my entire life with Christ was a big struggle. I was constantly working on this, trying to fix that, I was always fretting over where I was in my relationship with God.

When God brought me to the point of surrendering my life to Him, I realized that my entire life was to be focused on Christ. My new goal in life was now found in the old, familiar passage of Matthew 6:33. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” ALL God wanted me to do, was to focus on my relationship with Him by reading and studying His word. After a couple months of doing just that, I began to realize that He was “adding” to me. He was beginning to use His Word to make the way for His Holy Spirit to fill and overflow into every aspect in area of my life.

While I was unconsciously simplifying my relationship with Jesus, I now can look back and see that is just what God was leading me to do. Looking back on the rest of my life, I can see that I was making my relationship with the Lord a lot more difficult than what it needed to be. I was focusing on the different aspects of Christianity, rather than focusing on the One who would work in me to fulfill the different aspects of Christianity simply by my opening my life for Him to work.

That is a lot like what the Pharisees did in the Bible; they were focusing on the rituals of religion rather than on the relationship with God. Ouch! How many times have I done that in the past? How many times have I, for example, tried to show love to my family by focusing on serving them, trying to play with my younger siblings, always trying to show kindness, etc. instead, if I were to focus on the One who IS love, I would have naturally begun to show these aspects of love to my family!

I feel that one of Satan’s tricks to try to discourage me is to try to cause me to complicate my relationship with the Lord. I make it so that it is TOO HARD to live a life that is hidden Christ. I get discouraged from even attempting to!

May I learned to keep a simplistic view of my relationship with Christ, and follow him with a “childlike faith”!