Honest Answers Poll Top 5 Results
Thank you if you were one of those responsible for the awesome response to the 3 Honest Answers Poll questions … we had over 1300 individual votes!. In this post, I’m sharing the poll results and my initial thoughts on the top 5 conclusions that arise out of the data. My reasons for drawing those conclusions will follow in a couple of days.
In the meantime, I’d ask you to: (1) reflect on how the conclusions might apply to your life, and (2) have your say!
2. What is your attitude towards your prayer life?
3. Do you feel that you are walking in victory?
The results are in and to view them, just click on the thumbnails for both the data and the graph:
So let me ask you – how do you interpret these results?
Frankly, I was torn.
Do I look at them with a “glass half full” mentality (my natural inclination, since I’m an optimist) or do I look at them from a “glass half empty” perspective? Well, this time I’ve decided to go against my natural inclination. Here’s why.
Jesus said:
I have come that you may have life in all its abundance. (John 10:10)
That word “abundance” literally means “super-abundance” – there’s no real English equivalent.
You see I think that God has something planned for us – right in the middle of the day to day realities of our lives, with all the ups and downs we go through – that is much greater, much more powerful, much more fulfilling, much more blessed, than we ever imagine.
I believe the sort of victory that the Lord has planned for me, and the sort of victory the Lord has planned for you, is the sort of victory that Paul had when he was sitting chained to a guard on death row in a Roman dungeon. The sort of victory that enabled Paul to exclaim:
Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say … REJOICE! (Phil 4:4)
And it’s that perspective, Jesus‘ perspective, that draws me to conclude these things from the poll results:
1. Sure, the polling sample is highly atypical – with a staggering 58% reading God’s Word daily.
2. Nevertheless, 42% of those surveyed are going hungry on some or most days.
3. And almost 80% of those surveyed are less than enthusiastic about their prayer life.
4. As a result, just 18% of those surveyed reported that they are living a life of victory.
5. Bottom line: the high level of commitment to Bible reading is not, for most, translating into a super-abundant life.
Wow – those findings may sound tough. At the very least, I hope you find them as unsettling as I do. Of course, you may not agree. That’s fine.
I’d love to know what you think so please post a comment and have your say.
In a couple of days, I’ll be sharing my reasons for drawing these conclusions and … if they reflect what’s really going on in your life … what you can do about them!
Bless ya,
A habit they tell me is something that takes around 28 days to establish
We drive by habit not always thinking about everything we do
Bible study is a daily habit which the world tries to get you out of
I have a new habit learning a book of the bible by chapter
I listen while I iron (so boring) Its blown me away what I have learned on my own not just the odd verse here and there as some bible studies give you
My confidence in God and who He is has risen magnificently
Try to establish a habit
Carole …. have you been reading one of my upcoming blog posts (yet to be published. I’m soon going to be blogging about some simple, godly habits that make all the difference. As the old hymn goes “Take Time to be Holy …. speak oft with thy Lord!”
Watch this space and thanks for the great observations.
Bless ya,
Berni
Hi Berni, I think that many persons think of their Christian life as a ‘to-do’ thing. What has really brought me into state of rest is the teaching from Abiding Life: That it is not what I can accomplish for God, but as I have accepted Jesus as my Saviour that it is Christ in me who is my hope of glory (Kol 1,27). He loves me unconditionally. My job is to surrender to Him moment by moment and let Him do His work in and through me as He leads me.
Perhaps these results will make us pull up our spiritual ‘sox’ and get our priorities right. Myself especially! Well done, Berni if the result of all your work is a closer walk for all of us.
It is no wonder Christ has not been able to return! We are luke warm in our faith. How then can someone who is not totally committed to God and his kingdom reach out to others in power and with healing and overflow with his glorious love.
We are too worldly and covet the things of this world instead of the things of God. We do not have the burden for the lost to sacrifice all we have to go out and bring in the harvest as he has commanded us to do.
Prayer and fasting, reading/studying God’s word, holy communion, true fellowship of the believers; these are the things that will give us faith and love enough to be Christ’s disciples and do his will.
Janet Woolard-house sitting in Budgewoi
Wow
Some amazing and really well thought out comments. Thank you all and thank you to those who in particular shared part of their personal journey with us.. Keep ’em coming.
Berni
Bless you Berni,
May the light always show you the way, and may you always see it truly.
Hi Berni,
Let me start by saying, great findings Berni, It’s great to see where we at from time to time…
And also, let me please apologize for the length of this post.
I know that God has a plan for each of his followers, and He touches people in imaginary ways, but I’d like to highlight your findings…
“the high level of commitment to Bible reading is not, for most, translating into a super-abundant life.”
In a way that I think it’s affecting every Christian nowadays…
I believe that the reasons why it’s so hard to translate them into a super abundant life is because…
In our “Social life”… We’re being absolutely bombarded by the media…
Materialism, living for the physical world, living for money and things we can buy, Christmas is about spending, New Year’s is about spending, Our country needs for us to spend…and this spills over our faith, i.e as we shop around for Churches until we found one we like.
We go on a spending spree, I believe mainly because we’re insecure about the future, insecurity about money. Would I have enough tomorrow, next week, month or year?
Another issue is Hedonism, We’ve seen to just want to pursue happiness, pleasure and comfort: Who needs GOD when I’m happy?
and for this reasons we became a very health conscious society…, because without health we cant enjoy.
Secularism is another issue, our faith has become or seen as a hobby, pursue it in our spare time. We’re placing less and less importance in public life…for example…”Keep God aside from politics, work, and now apparently marriage”
Which leads to a whole new bunch of issues concerning…our Mental Status…
The phrase “GOD is The Truth” has been practically destroyed by
Rationalism…
Truth is discovered by Men and not revealed by GOD.
We discover Truth by our brain, and only if we can reason it, and only those things we can reason are the truth, and so if science can’t prove it, it isn’t true.
This then leads to
Relativism…
Truth is discovered through preference because of rationalism and so we have the lack of presence of complete truth, there is no longer the saying that if this is true, then that its false. No more black and white, but a grey area.
This then becomes what’s happening today, what it’s true for you it’s not true for me, truth becomes subjective, internal and not external.
Truth for me and truth for you, nothing is false.
And People of different religions can meet and say this is true for me, and that is true for me, and we just end up respecting our views. And there is no truth for anyone.
This then translates into moral behavior : what’s good or bad,
what’s good or bad for you may be different for me.
And we completely lost the ideal of “What GOD says what it’s good or bad for me”
I feel like Christians can no longer say that They’ve found the Truth, because it’s not accepted.
The lack of Truth leads us then to
Pluralism…
Which claims that We’re All seeking the ultimate truth, and that all the religions of the world are valid…
And so The most desirable qualities are Tact and Tolerance – Political Correctness is built on these.
But where in the Bible mentions that Tact and Tolerance are desirable qualities? Nowhere.
And finally we reach to..
Syncretism
All Religions are the same, for human purposes and not for God.
I believe that every Christian after reading the bible goes through the above on a daily basis…,I’m a Christian and I go through the above every single day.
As a Christian is not just about me and the Lord, it’s about you, about Berni, about every single living person in the planet united as one big family with our Lord…and I think reading the bible is one thing, but putting in action what the bible teaches is a must.
For example…, I’m torn to hear that a “majority of people” in Australia consider “Gay marriage” acceptable.
It’s not what we think it’s ok or not, it’s what God says it’s ok or not. So let’s pray for all these people, and as Christians, it’s our duty to teach them the words of our Lord.
as the letter of Paul to the Romans 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.
Ephesians 6: 10-17
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
All Glory to God.
Very interesting summery, it’s easy to see much thought was put into it, but to put it simpler in my own case, I just start with ME, not looking around to see what everyone else is doing, but by starting with my self, learning the WORD, working at it everyday, to carry out God’s Truth, is a more efficient route. History depicts what it dose, my job is to keep me, myself & I in line, and carrying out God’s rules…even at that, (I admit to still be a sinner, so I just keep trying, and emphasize “working at it” the most important part, so while we can categorize well into the forever, the NOW is most important to me, and none of us knows how long our NOW is for anyway, Praise the Lord..
While we do need God’s word daily, “man does not live by bread alone”. WE need to meet with like minded believers, shared God’s great mystery and love with others, and spend time daily thinking on God and his plan. Who has time for that? As much as I would love that, my life does not allow it. When my children were little, I had my closest time with God, and my life did feel extremely abundant, even though it was the poorest time in my life, with many hardships. I think that our lives become very much like the rich man’s life to varying degrees. When you think that you are doing everything you are supposed to, but do not have that close happiness with your Father, he calls you to give it all up and follow our Lord. How many of us are really willing to do that?
We need to know who we are in Christ firstly and lastly and based on the polls it seems that a huge number of us do not fully understand how God operates. we want something but on our terms. our Father is not negotiable on our terms. we need to take more time to get to know our Father in heaven.
If reading your Bible and prayer were all it took to have a victorious life, then Jesus would never have been crucified. The Pharisees who did that religiously would nevr have turned against him.
Amen to that!!!
Hello. I came across this by accident, but I’d like to comment. I’m an (almost) non-practising Christian. I believe and I’m a Christian advocate but do very little. I was stronger once. I would have answered 5, 4, 4. So you may take my observations with a pinch of salt (that may be a pun) :).
Perhaps people “read” the bible often but don’t absorb it’s spirit. Too much cognitive, too little faith. Intellectual argument is one thing, allowing the spirit of God to guide you is another.
Looking at the high number scores (where I am), I wonder how they correlate across the data. It is heartening to see 0 loathe their lives, but then they probably wouldn’t have completed the survey. One of my personal issues has been depression, from which it is taking decades to recover.
I would like to say that, as good as it would be to see those close to a life of victory get there, it would wonderful to see those at the other end being freed. But, then I may be writing to the wrong demographic.
I don’t know that I agree with the often referred to meaning of abundance. By simple observation, Christians don’t appear to receive such abundance, but they do get peace and the promise of eternal life – an unmatched abundance.
I also see that victory in the world and in the physical body is rare, but victory in the mind and spirit is a gift of the highest order.
Joe,
It seems to me, reading your comment, that you have a depth of wisdom and understanding that you don’t recognise in yourself. Your words suggesst that you have a rare sensitivity in your spirit to the heart nd love of God.
Bless ya,
Berni
As the Christian life is a relationship with God, and not a ritual, we need to see our time in the Word as when God speaks to us. Usually this is more than simply reading a passage – often it involves waiting, meditation and responding to the Lord. Praise God so many are reading His Word, let’s move on from that to responding to what He reveals, and by obeying His voice. If there is a “down side” to be worked on, it is that there is over 40% not regularly seeking God through His Word.
It takes more than a high commitment to reading the word. Submission and broken-ness is what translates into living the abundant life.
Interesting that we read the word.yet get disallusioned when a situation arises which we wernt expecting.but still we know where to run back to when we realize.God is in control. No matter what our situations..im so thankful…
That’s a wrap too, and things do go wrong day to day for all of us, keep trucking!
Its easy to get out of a habit when life throws u a curly & trying to adjust to different circumstances & find $ to get the needed equipment change, (talking bible, large print bible) can mean that many months have gone by before you try to restart a habit that you loved. I still struggle with it but do enjoy my talking times as I call them its become more natural as I thank Him for the simple things that happen ea day. Wilderness is a horrid place to go & in that time the desire to read the word disappears to as in my case I blamed God for a long time until I accepted & now more on slowly in a different direction with a lot more understanding 🙂
Good for U….Praise God, another victory, as I see it!