When you gave your life to Christ, it was an intentional choice. Since that moment, how often have you made the same kind of conscious decision to live your life devoted to Him? Most of us drift through life content to do what everyone else does – find a steady job, live in a respectable neighborhood and perhaps start a family. Along the way our goals appear to be how much stuff we can acquire and how large we can grow our 401(k) balances. We live a life that looks no different from those who do not claim to follow Christ, most of whom don’t even believe He was who He said He was.
Daily Life
Hard to Believe?
As a musician, I’ve definitely had some songwriting heroes over the years. One of those people is the amazing Steve Taylor, a man with an incredible talent for creating unique and incredible lyrics. One of his more haunting songs was titled, “Harder to Believe than Not To”. The tune was running through my head the other day (I am blessed/cursed with a non-stop 24/7 radio playing continually in my subconscious!), when I suddenly realized I totally disagreed with the words. The troubling line was from the chorus where Taylor sings, “Don’t you know by now why the chosen are few? It’s harder to believe than not to.” I understand where he is coming from; certainly to the world at large, it seems to believe in Jesus is a difficult thing. I live in America, the wealthiest nation the world has ever seen, and Jesus said it is nearly impossible for a rich man to enter Heaven (Matthew 19:23-26). I get that the cross is a stumbling block for many who refuse to put away their own selfish desires and ambitions to instead live a life of service to God. To me, those examples demonstrate more of an unwillingness to yield control rather than a difficulty in believing.
All for Jesus
What are you doing today? What plans are you making for your life? In our consumerist and materialistic society, it is easy to get caught up in a life that does little to reflect Jesus or promote the growth of His Kingdom. The problem is, as followers of Christ, we are called to live for a single purpose: to glorify God by furthering the mission of Jesus. We stand in the midst of a generation of believers who profess their faith in Christ yet live lives that show little evidence of that commitment. Jesus died to not only forgive our sins, but to transform us from the inside out. I don’t know about you, but I don’t run into a lot of transformed Christians. I meet many who go to church or donate their time and money to worthy causes, but those activities are a far cry from transformation. We have one purpose and one goal; everything else is futile and worthless.
Spiritual Goals
As this year begins to draw to a close, many of us look excitedly toward the possibilities of the next. I am a goals oriented person, and this is the time of year when I begin to solidify my objectives for the next twelve months. It is also a time of reflection to review the previous year’s goals, to see what I did well and what I could have done better. Nothing is as exciting to me as a new beginning, a chance to achieve anew those things that are most important to me. If you’ve never set goals before, stick with me as we look at how they can be important to becoming the person God has created you to be.
The Word of God
I heard David Platt ask an interesting question recently. The question was, “Does the Word stop with you or spread through you?” In other words, when you listen to a sermon, read the Bible, or gain spiritual insight from a song, a book or other means, what do you do with what you learn? Do you keep it to yourself and internalize the lesson? Or do you receive what you have learned in order to teach it to someone else? It’s great to grow closer to God and use what we learn to more closely model our lives after His, but until we are sharing our knowledge with others, we are falling short of the things He told us to do.