Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus
In the passage of 1 Timothy 2:1-4, we find instruction regarding the ways in which we should all be praying. Many times we get into the habit of our prayers being self-oriented and we neglect many of the people and circumstances for which we should be praying. A vibrant and consistent prayer life is a key to understanding the character and principles of God, so it’s worth pausing to consider all the ways we have been instructed to pray.
There are several reasons that we as followers of Christ attend church. The Bible tells us that we should get together with fellow believers so we can encourage each other (Hebrews 10:24-25). Associating with others who follow Christ also helps keep us accountable in both our actions and words. Worshipping as a group of like minded people brings a dynamic that is different from when we worship alone. All of these reasons are good, scriptural and necessarily refreshing as we seek to walk the path Christ has set before us. However, I don’t think it’s enough to simply fellowship with other believers and enjoy a time of worship. I believe we need to be learning more about God during the time we spend together. Yet today there seems to be an emphasis on shallow teaching and a focus on those gathered rather than those on the outside who desperately need the gospel of Jesus.
Every day we read the news and it seems our world keeps going from bad to worse. It can be discouraging as we try and live for Christ on a planet that seems determined to eradicate His name from its vocabulary. Intellectually we know that God is in control and in the end He will triumph. Through our logical eye, however, we question how that will ever be possible in a world that seems to have simply gone mad. Good news seems even better than it is because it has become so rare. Newspapers and web sites are full of negative stories be it concerning the economy, war, or violence perpetrated against random individuals. Over time it becomes numbing to the point that we simply get used to bad news.
In Matthew 16, verse 24, Jesus tells His followers that “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” It is common among Christians to talk about “taking up your cross”.
We generally pull that out whenever we are going through some sort of trial. Yet we don’t hear a lot in our modern churches about denying ourselves. It seems we’ve relegated that to the people of the past, the super-spiritual or the mystics. After all, denying oneself is a wholly un-American way to think.
Once you have made the decision to follow Christ, what’s next? How do we go about doing life the day after we have given ourselves to Him? Those who truly love Him want so much more than a “get out of Hell free” pass. We want to live in a manner that glorifies Him and sets us apart. But where do we start and how to we continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus?
Fortunately, God did not leave us to figure this out on our own. To help guide us, He places His Spirit within each of us who put their faith in Him. He also gave us the instructions of His Word in scripture. His plan for our maturity can be found in 2 Peter 1:5-8. It’s a roadmap for how we should live our life.