The Christian life can be overly complex at times, but most of these numerous occasions it really doesn't have to be that complicated.
As human beings, we have a very strong tendency to overcomplicate many things in our lives. Most will argue that it's unavoidable that life will get more complicated as we go through it, but does it really have to?
I have been accused many times of oversimplifying things. I have had many members of my congregation give comments after my sermons that sound something like, "It can't be that simple!" or "You don't understand my real situation."
But does it really have to be that complicated all the time? Jesus was a great example of someone who knew how to keep things simple. He boiled down hundreds of Mosaic, civil and ritualistic laws to two: love God and love others. So does life really have to be as complicated as we think? Here are three situations in which Christians just might be overcomplicating their faith.
Finding purpose
When deciding whether or not a certain career, family decision, migration opportunity or call to ministry is really the will of God, many of us become guilty of overcomplicating God's will for our lives. I'm not exempt from this.
We beat ourselves up, looking for signs, fasting for seven to 40 days, waiting for an audible voice to speak to us. And I'm not saying that these things are wrong. By all means, we should fast, but it's not in fasting that God reveals Himself. To keep things simple, let us look not to the formalities, rituals and best practices, but look instead to the Person who sets our purpose and seek Him intently.
Finding the way to freedom from sin
More often than not, counselling sessions can turn into a lengthy discussion of a strategic plan to get out of addiction. While best practices are helpful, the message that God gives us is not good advice but good news.
Instead of preaching advice for three hours on how to be set free from sin, we must instead preach the good news of God's finished work and how that alone is the true way to sanctification. As we continue to put our faith in God's ability and not ours, we will progressively become free of sinful flesh.
Having "enough" faith in God
Have you ever experienced praying for the sick, not seeing results and thinking, "my faith isn't big enough?" We've all fallen for this trap at some point or another, but the biblical emphasis was never on the size of our faith, but on the faithfulness of God.
Instead of focusing on our faith, our good works or our ability to follow God's rules, it would be best to focus on God's faithfulness in His people and let everything else be a by-product of that.
