“Christianity Doesn’t Work For Me!”

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord.” — Isaiah 55:8

I was listening to a young woman struggling in her faith and sharing all the trauma and drama in her life. She was trying to understand why situations in her life continue to go wrong. She shared with me all that she has done; read her Bible, pray, go to church, do things the right way, etc. Yet, the circumstances didn’t change. In exasperation, as I have heard many times before, she ended with, “Christianity doesn’t work for me!”

I responded, “Good! It is not supposed to.”

What? What could I possibly mean by that? I mean Christianity is not supposed to work for you!

We live in a world that is all about us. In fact, many of the churches you can attend in America are mostly concerned with practical advice on how to live your life. I’ve presented in churches that would specifically ask me to end my sermon with practical steps for people to apply. I always refuse. While there are practical things we can learn from the Bible, there is nothing practical about being a partaker of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

Many have fallen back into the old covenant view of blessing and cursing. Certainly in the Old Testament the relationship God had with man was one of blessing and cursing. If you follow the law, God will bless you in the world. Break the law and God will curse you.

We often embrace this idea today and think: If I do everything right, then my life will be perfect, my spouse and kids will be perfect… finances, job, etc. …all will be perfect.

This is not Biblical. Many who have walked closely with God were imprisoned, stoned, persecuted, crucified, fed to wild animals, and put to death in unimaginable ways. They were poor, slaves, outcasts and from all walks of life. Not because they were doing things wrong. Rather, because Christianity didn’t work for them, it worked for Him. Because the world is not God’s kingdom.

Jesus said speaking of Christians, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (John 17:15-16)

Christianity is all about Jesus and not about us. It is all about His kingdom and not this world.

Paul provides one of the craziest passages in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 7:20-22, “Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave.”

What ongoing circumstance could be worse than slavery? Yet, we are told not to be concerned even about that circumstance. Your circumstances in the world are irrelevant from an eternal perspective. Rather it is the circumstances of your spiritual life that matter most to God.

That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care about what you are going through. He cares deeply. We are to pray without ceasing. Bring our circumstances, troubles, worries and burdens to Him. Yet, His plan is not to work everything out to give you a heaven on earth. His plan is to grow you in His grace and knowledge for the Heaven that is to come.

Christianity is not supposed to work for you in this world. The work is done! It was finished in Christ. We were created to worship our Lord. We were created to grow in His grace and knowledge. We were adopted to join Him in the perfection of the age to come.

God does not work for us! We were created for Him. The moment we put a litmus test on Christianity by how God works for us, we have lost all perspective on who God is and who we were created to be.

Certainly God blesses those who walk with Him. Always spiritually, sometimes physically. However, those blessings are just as true and real in a vacation house on the beach as they are in a prison. They do not waver from the mansion to the shack. They are not changed by prosperity nor by poverty nor by any other circumstance.

Christianity only works when we understand who God is and who we are called to be in Him. It only finds life when we allow the Living Lord to live through us. It only truly has hope when all our hope is placed in Him rather than the next circumstance in our life. It reminds me to examine myself everyday as to whether my eyes are focused on the world or on He who has overcome the world.

Where is your focus today?

© 2025 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.

Asking for a Friend

“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” — Revelation 2:4

I need your advice. I normally write a devotion every week, but today I am seeking advice for a friend.

I have a friend who fell in love with a girl. He went out to a bar one night as the designated driver. He was just there to make sure his buddies got home safe. A girl approached him at the bar and they started talking. One thing led to another and they “hit it off”. However, she was actually “working” the bar to make extra money to pay for college. My friend pushed past this and a relationship developed. Eventually they got married and all was well.

They had three kids together and were living a seemingly wonderful domestic life. However, it was actually pretty strained. She missed the excitement of her early years. She felt she was missing out. That she had settled to live a boring life. She reconnected with a former boyfriend via social media. They began talking and it wasn’t long before it become more romantic in nature. One day she left her family and disappeared.

My friend searched for her and discovered she had run off to Albuquerque to be with her former boyfriend. Unwilling to give up on the relationship he began to reach out to her. He eventually left everything to go to Albuquerque to try and win her back. He connected with her and in time won her over. She was finally willing to come back home.

It turned out her “boyfriend” was more of a pimp. He claimed she owed him a small fortune in debt she had to work off. He threatened both of them if they tried to leave without paying the debt. My friend realized she had been thrust back in to her old ways of “working” for a living. Yet, he still utilized all his life’s savings to pay off the debt so they could leave without incident.

She followed him home. They began working through building a new future with their children. Even now, after all the love, forgiveness, acceptance and grace my friend had showed her, she still longs for a more exciting life.

My friend shared this story with me and asked me what I would do? Honestly, I’m struggling with my response.

I am not violating any confidence in sharing this story with you. It is a somewhat modern paraphrase of the Biblical book of Hosea. My friend is Hosea (or God). His wife is Gomer (or Israel or MYSELF).

I’m struggling with my response because the friend I’m asking for is me. This is my story. Whether it be lust, money, pride, fame, position or any of a horde of other indiscretions, I often find myself as Gomer longing for a life apart from my great Love; Christ. They always draw me away into a life of debt and debasement. Yet, I’m drawn to them. I secretly seek them out. Maybe you, my friend, do too.

How quickly I forget the love of my Lord! How easily I dismiss the forgiveness, acceptance and grace of the one who seeks me out no matter what dark hole I’ve wandered into trying to find fulfillment. How simply I write off the debt He has paid for me. How ignorant I am to dismiss the earnest love of my Savior.

How easy my heart, my eyes and my emotions wander! What is Gomer to do? What am I to do? What is my friend to do?

“Turn to Me with all your heart … Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.” (Joel 2:12-13)

God’s grace abounds to all who will receive it! What better advice could you give than to return? Asking for a friend.

© 2025 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.

Did You Have a Good Day?

“. . . draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” — Hebrews 10:22 

Kendra, a five-year-old girl my wife and I kept after school, jumped into the back of the van. She was all smiles. She did not have a care in the world. She was out of school. It was a beautiful spring day, and she was ready to play.

As we started pulling out of the parking lot, I looked at her in the rear view mirror. I asked her, “Did you have a good day?” Immediately the smile was gone. It was replaced by a look of confusion. I thought maybe she didn’t understand me, so I asked again. “Did you have a good day?” This time she answered without hesitation, “I don’t know! I haven’t looked at my folder yet.”

The folder is a form of discipline used by the school our children attend. Each child has a folder. If a child forgets their homework, they get their folder signed. If they do something wrong, they get their folder signed. The first time is a warning. The second signing earns them a 15 minute time-out. The third a 30 minute time-out. The fourth signing earns them a free trip to the principal’s office. It is a vacation they didn’t want to take. Every day they bring the folder home. To Kendra, and I am sure many of the children at the school, a good day is determined by whether or not their folder was signed.

I was amused by Kendra’s response. I mean it was obvious by the pep in her walk and the smile on her face that she was having a wonderful day. Yet, she couldn’t say so. Her day was not determined by what she knew to be true, it was determined by what someone else thought.

It seems silly, but most adults live each day the same way. We may not carry around a literal folder, but we carry around many mental folders. We have one for work, one for home and one for our social events. We have a mental folder for everything we do, and we are always checking them to see how our day is going.

Your boss scowls at you – bad day. Your boss gives you a pat on the back – good day.

Your children are embarrassed by you – bad day. Your children think you are a hero – good day.

Your friends are too busy for you – bad day. Your friends can’t wait to get together with you – good day.

Your spouse doesn’t say a word to you – really bad day. Your spouse wakes you up with a kiss – really good day.

Lest we forget: You give in to the same temptation you have fallen for over and over again – bad day. You overcome the temptation – good day.

In the end, we are just like little Kendra. As our day comes to a close, we look back through all our mental folders and try to determine whether or not we had a good day. The problem is that most of the things we keep folders on are out of our control. We cannot control how our boss, friends or even our spouse act or react from day to day. Have you ever heard the phrase, “an emotional roller-coaster”? We always feel like we are on an emotional roller-coaster. Why? Because we allow our circumstance to decide who we are and how we feel.

God knows that every folder we keep will always end up with way too many signatures in it. Take the area of your life where you have the strongest performance, and you will still fall drastically short of perfection. God knows that if we focus on our own performance, not only will we have a bad day, we will have a bad life, so God came up with a better plan.

He took all of our folders and gave them to His Son. All our signed folders earned Jesus a trip to the cross. When He died, our folders died. They were not wiped clean and then handed back to us to try again. They were gone. And in their place, God gave us His Son’s folder in the form of the indwelling Christ. We carry with us the folder of the Perfect Child. It has our name on it. It is who we are!

The question is: what folder are you trying to look at? The Deceiver loves to dig up the memories of those old folders. He loves to wave them in front of our face and say, “Look how bad you are!” All too often we fall for it. We sulk in the shadows and mumble through our bad days. Then one day we look up and realize that we have been sulking and mumbling our entire lives.

I have written many times about how God sees us. The Bible says we are perfect and holy in His sight. We are righteous, accepted, loved, and forgiven. Yet this doesn’t mean much if you are looking at those old folders and sulking in the shadows, hiding from God and hoping He doesn’t come looking for you. This is the trap we fall into. It is in the shadows that we allow our circumstances to define who we are and how we feel.

God wants us out of the shadows. That is why Hebrews 10:22 encourages us to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” God wants us to stand before Him with full assurance of faith. He also wants us to go through each day with the same assurance. What is the assurance? It is not that you can do better. Our assurance is the indwelling Christ. Our assurance is that when God looks at us, He sees the folder of Christ. Are you living under this assurance?

I am what I am because the Great I Am said I am! That’s a great day! There are going to be days filled with bad circumstances. Are you going to allow the bad circumstances to control how you act? Or are you going to allow the indwelling Christ to act through you in those circumstances? Focus on who the Bible says you are. Trust the indwelling Christ to live through you. Go forward with assurance and confidence in Christ. Have a great day!

© 2025 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.

Safety Coffin Fallacy

Dying request of George Washington: “Have me decently buried, but do not let my body be put into a vault in less than two days after I am dead.” 

In the 1700s and 1800s, fear of premature death was a real phobia among people. Medicine was definitely not an exact science and people feared being buried alive. Thought to be dead only to resuscitate after being boxed and planted, what could be worse?

During this period numerous patents exist for safety coffins: coffins equipped with bells, whistles, flags, breathing tubes, etc. for just such a situation. Although most historical sources state there is no evidence anyone was ever buried utilizing a safety coffin, many designs were created and sold.

Life and death have always consumed the thoughts of people. What is life? What is death? What happens? How do we know?

Unfortunately, for most this is simply a conversation about the body. Even more unfortunate is how many people see Christianity as a safety coffin for when the body gives out. They live as though in that moment they can ring the bell and God will take over. Like they are saying, “Okay, Lord, I’m done. You can have me now.” And a bell rings and another angel gets his wings. That view of Christianity is a fallacy.

Paul writes to the Ephesians, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1) Life and death have nothing to do with the body. When it comes to Christianity, it is about the spirit. It is about being brought to life from spiritual death.

Paul also wrote, “For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:7-8) Paul is saying that when it comes to the life of the body, it is irrelevant. There is a YOU that exists beyond the body. If the body is alive or dead, it doesn’t change YOU—the true spiritual YOU. And as a Christian, YOU belong to the Lord.

Paul is emphasizing his point of looking past the physical world and opening your heart and mind to the spiritual. The very point he made in Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

It is about freedom from the physical world. Freedom from sin. Freedom from anxiety. Freedom from the very things bogging us down, keeping us up at night and overwhelming our minds. “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)

But we often have to admit, “I don’t see this freedom in my life!” Paul continues in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” In other words, we can only begin to experience this freedom when we stop looking at ourselves and our world, and start looking at our Lord and Savior “as in a mirror” of who we truly are in this world and beyond it.

That is the true YOU! The spiritual YOU! The eternal You! And YOU belong to the Lord!

© 2025 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.

Drop the Hammer!

By Warren Martin

“As iron sharpens iron,
So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”
— Proverbs 27:17

In the early days of the oil industry, drilling was primarily accomplished by cable-drilling rigs. Drilling tools were huge steel beams in varying sizes and tips. Steam engines would power a walking beam to raise the drilling tool and drop it into the well to make more hole. Each time the tool would drop, the cable would release slightly allowing the tool to slowly turn in a circle hitting each stroke with a new angle.

The blunt force of each drop took a toll on the drilling tool. Over time, it would dull and begin to flatten out the tool. Ever so often the crew would have to remove the tool for sharpening.

On the drilling floor was a blacksmiths furnace. The tool would be placed in the furnace and heated until it glowed bright. Then, like working metal into a horseshoe, the tool would be hammered back into shape and sharpened. This kept the tool sharp. It also protected the integrity of the hole and kept it from widening as you went further down.

The reshaping tools were primarily a hammer and a size guide. The hammer to shape, and size guide to return the tool to the same caliber circumference.

Proverbs 27:17 is among the most quoted verses from the Bible, but many people do not understand what it means. Iron can’t sharpen iron unless there is a clash of the two metals. As in the hammer striking the drilling tool to reshape and sharpen it.

This is the picture being communicated by the proverb. It is not just about having good friends who will support you. It is about having authentic friends who will support and challenge you. Friends who desire to see you become sharper and better. And friends who use the Holy Bible as their sizing guide.

We all need friends like this. And we need to be friends of this nature to others. It is not easy, especially in today’s world where people tend to only surround themselves with people who agree with them. Conflict and being challenged is difficult. Yet, that is the very thing that sharpens us and helps us grow. It is where our strength and integrity are reshaped, sharpened and sized by the true guide—God’s Word. We need friends who are willing to drop the hammer on us, challenge us and do so from the foundation of scripture.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 reads in part, “Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. …Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

This passage shows why having good friends and being a good friend is important. It enables us to stand more securely in our faith. But the key is that last line where the two become three. Great friendships are a bond between two individuals established by faith in Jesus Christ. That is where the hammer is dropped, iron meets iron and true sharpening begins.

Ask yourself today; What kind of friend am I to others? And what friends do I allow to reshape my life? Are they doing so according to the sizing guide of God’s Word? Do I need to make some changes in this area of my life?

© 2025 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.