Sale Rack Faith

There it was…hanging ever so delicately on the rack.

 

It was beautiful.

 

It was covered in pink lace.

 

It was on sale for half off!

 

 

Oh how my heart leapt with joy when I saw that tiny little red sale sign!  It hung there all by its lonesome just waiting for someone (me!) to pick it up and buy it.  I tried it on and to my surprise it was the perfect fit.  I headed to the cash register with my other items in tow, proudly handing over my new dress to the cashier.

 

But what flashed across the screen was not a sale price.  It was far from it in fact.

 

“Excuse me, ma’am?  Was that dress not on sale?”   There had to have been some sort of mix up.

 

“No dear.  I’m sorry.  Someone must have placed it on the wrong rack.”

 

For a moment disappointment rushed over me.  I knew it wasn’t in my budget to buy this dress at the original price.  I smiled at the cashier and politely asked if she would remove it from my total.

 

I left the store frustrated that I had to leave the dress behind, but in my heart (and my head) I knew it was the right decision not to buy something that wasn’t in my budget.   As I drove out of the store parking lot, a thought came to me.

 

 

Do some of us have sale rack faith?

 

 

Are we worried that our faith will cost us too much?

 

Require too much of us?

 

Cause us to let go of things that may be idols in our lives like possessions, or positions?

 

 

The answer is yes to all of these questions.  Having faith and a strong relationship with God will cost us and absolutely it will require much of us.  While letting go of idols in our lives is a difficult task, it is the first thing that God commands us to do.

 

 

^“You are not to serve any other gods before Me.

 You are not to make any idol or image of other gods. In fact, you are not to make an image of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath. You are not to bow down and serve any image, for I, the Eternal your God, am a jealous God. As for those who are not loyal to Me, their children will endure the consequences of their sins for three or four generations.  But for those who love Me and keep My directives, their children will experience My loyal love for a thousand generations.”

 Exodus 20:3-6 (The Voice)

 

 

That dress I wanted, as lovely as it was had become an idol in my life in a mere few moments of browsing the racks.  I was idolizing a dress?  In my head I wanted to justify my reasoning for wanting it so badly.

 

You deserve something new for a change.  You NEVER buy new clothes!

 

You work hard.  Treat yourself.

 

It’s a smaller size and it actually fits!

 

Just pay the difference and make up for it some other way.

 

 

Now I realize we’re talking about a dress here, but Satan uses these same tactics when he tries to derail us from following Jesus.

 

You’ll lose your friends.

 

People will think you’re weird.

 

Look at your past!  You’ll be called a total hypocrite.

 

You don’t know enough about the Bible and Jesus to “follow” Him.

 

You’ll have to give up____ (fill in the blank) for Jesus.

 

 

The list could go on.  Satan tries to use the idols in our life, possessions we have, etc. to show us just what we would be giving up to follow Jesus.   And sometimes if we’re being honest, we think it would cost us too much to do so.  We think it would inconvenience us to give up something.

 

Too often we’re perfectly happy just to go to church on Sunday’s, post a scripture status on Facebook or Twitter every now and then, and pray when life gets a little too hard to handle.

 

Where are we going deeper with God?

 

Are we just sitting in the comfortably of our lives?

 

When will we give up something for the man who died for us?

 

 

As small as it was, giving up that dress that day was hard for me to do.  But it’s even harder to let go of other big idols in our lives.  But you know what?

 

I don’t want sale rack faith.

 

I don’t want to just sit comfortably in my relationship with God.  Sometimes it does hurt to let something go.  And yes, even comes as an inconvenience for me at times.  But it also causes me to learn to depend solely on God for strength and satisfaction.  It allows me to go deeper with Him and grow in a relationship with Him that I would not have had otherwise.  Are you ready to lay down an idol in your life to gain a closer relationship with God?

 

 

Friends, let us not have sale rack faith.  Jesus paid much too high a price.

 

 

 

Have you ever struggled to let a material possession go?

 

What idols are present in your life that you need to get rid of?

 

If you’ve given up something for the Lord, how was your life changed?