It’s been fifty years since I accepted the gift of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. You would think I’d have the Christian walk figured out by now. Sadly, you would be wrong. I’m still learning, failing, and growing. Our finite minds will never comprehend all there is to know about God, and our fallen humanity can never walk in perfection with Him.
But we must never cease striving to live our lives in obedience and surrender to Him. His Word compels us to do so, and our love for Him keeps us ever-yearning to serve Him better and please Him more. Until that glorious day when He calls us home to be with Him, the best we can do is to draw closer to Jesus every day we live.
We won’t draw closer to Jesus by doing the things everyone else is doing. You already know this intellectually, but are you living as if you know it to be true? Too often, our lives resemble those of our friends and neighbors. The sad truth is very few of those who claim to be surrendered to Jesus actually are. We do not center our lives around Christ. If we did, we’d spend our evenings pouring over the light of His Word instead of huddling around the glow of the television. Our joy would come from quietly spending time in prayer rather than from the raucous crowds at sporting events or concerts.
The truth is, we live our lives centered around our selfish desires. We prefer our entertainment over the discipline of living as a disciple of Jesus. We prefer to spend money on our comfort and security than on the needs of others. Nothing about our everyday life screams, “Jesus first and Only Jesus!” Sure, we have our moments. We give to those in need and spend a few minutes each day in prayer and Bible reading. But most Christians I know are merely going through the motions. We check off enough spiritual boxes to feel good about ourselves before falling back into habits that do little to glorify our God and King.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where all this leads. Look around at the world today and you will see most people living in open rebellion against God. It’s not a far step from neglecting God in the little things to an all-out rejection of Him. We are either all in for Jesus or we are out of His Kingdom. If we refuse to draw closer to Jesus, our destiny is to go the way of this world, separated from God and lost without hope.
It is not yet too late to repent and turn to Christ. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can fake your surrender to Him. He knows your heart. We are all guilty of paying lip service to our King and Creator. If we love Him, we will make some changes. We will orient our lives around Him instead of our desires and put others ahead of ourselves. If you truly recognize who God is, you will have an unquenchable desire to draw closer to Jesus. He is the only way to salvation (John 14:6). He is the only way to eternal life. Do we believe that? If we do, our lives will be different. We will surrender everything to Christ and consume ourselves with the pursuit of Him and Him alone.