By Zachery Ross

I remember it like it was yesterday; I was at an altar, kneeling, weeping before the Lord, my heart crying out in desperation for His mercy and comfort. I had made mistakes in my walk with Him. I had stumbled, fallen into temptation, said things I shouldn’t have said, considered things that should never have entered my mind as a redeemed child of God. My heart was dealing with the heaviness that often comes during the teenage years. I was building an altar one more time.

And I made a promise to God. I told Him, between sobs, I want to live for You. I want to passionately live for You, Lord. From this day forward, I will live for You whole-heartedly, ignoring the things of this world, always wanting more of You.

I stood up from that altar and felt the weight of sin lifted off my shoulders. My spirit was revived. I had been cleansed, made anew by His grace and mercy. Great is His faithfulness!

And then again, I stumbled. I fell down. I was tricked by the devil. I smarted off to my parents, harbored jealousy in my heart, said rude things to other people, and tumbled back into the same old rut of sin and shame.

This is not just MY story, by the way. I can assuredly tell you that this is the tragic routine of thousands, if not millions, of young people – Apostolic young people, mind you. In a world where we are bombarded with the attacks of hell nearly twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, through marketing and media, politics and professional sports, friends, and sometimes family, it can be extremely hard not only to let your light shine, but also to keep it from going asunder altogether.

So what is the problem with those of us who struggle with being fully committed to the cause of Christ? I’m not talking about those who just don’t give a care. I’m talking about the ones who seem to want to serve God on Sundays but suddenly find it so much harder to live for Him every other day of the week. The ones who know that judgment is impending for their weekly transgressions, and therefore run to the altars on Sunday night to make sure they’re clean, in case the rapture takes place while they’re sleeping.

Allow me to pause and say: this is NOT Christian living. God gave us the Holy Ghost to use it as a weapon. It is through HIS power that we quench the fiery darts of the wicked. Revelation proclaims that the saints overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. There would never have been a Lamb had God not robed Himself in flesh, and we wouldn’t have a testimony had God not given us one! The slain Lamb is the door by which we can have a relationship with God, walk in His power, and live victoriously over sin.

But the question is, why don’t we? Is it a lack of desire? Perhaps in some cases. But I still believe that there are many young people who would like to live for God, freed from sin, but find themselves struggling, half-willingly and half-unwillingly, to serve the Lord. They have one foot in the door (or in some cases, perhaps just a little toe) of the church, while the other members of the body are being exploited and used for the purposes of unrighteousness.

This is why the answer is consistency. I’m talking about areas of prayer and fasting, Scripture intake and meditation, commitment and sacrifice. The desire to serve God sounds great in a moment at an altar, but I don’t think that my generation of young people has truly taken the time to calculate the costs of walking with the Lord. Living for God means you approach His throne when you feel like it and when you don’t feel like it. Living for God means you ingest His Word and pray that its messages will move you to become more like Christ. Living for God means never quitting even when you are tired, always accepting mercy and grace for atonement but never forgetting that sin is unwanted in the Kingdom, and having an overall spiritual passion that consumes your life, wanting to be with God and more like Him every day.

We will never win battles in our generation with in-and-out Christianity. The fire of the Spirit must burn within us and drive our flesh to subjection, while burning brightly as a beacon for all to see. A consistent approach to walking in the Spirit will prove to be the victor over a fight with hell. Too often we wait for an altar call to make it right with God. We should be making it not only right with Him daily, but better with Him daily! To be cavalier means to be careless, offhanded, and arrogant. We must never, especially not in these desperate times, be cavalier about consistency.

The above article, “Cavalier about Consistency,” is written by Zachery Ross. The article was excerpted from his blog, The Current Christian.

The material is most likely copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.