So here’s the thing about being a Christian in everyday life: if we are really born-again and saved by the blood of Jesus, we are different the rest of the world and we need to live different from the rest of the world.
To be a Christian in everyday life doesn’t mean just going to church, reading the Bible and praying “in Jesus’ name”. It means living with love, peace, and joy. It means living with an eye to eternal things.
Being a Christian means always living to please God and show God’s unconditional love to other people.
When Christians have often gotten a bad name is when we espouse a certain set of methods, rituals, and language but have not been people of love and grace. The bride of Christ has been hated sometimes not because we looked like Jesus but because we looked like the world. If we are hated because of love and holiness, we can praise God that we have been counted among those persecuted because we imitated Jesus. But if we are known for judgmentalism, a critical spirit, gossip, slander, negativity or anger, how tragic, certainly this is not what Christianity is about!
So, please, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ:
- First, ask the Lord if you are indeed a child of God and not merely a person following certain religious ideas. Scripture says that the Holy Spirit of God will confirm in our spirit if we are children of God and this only comes by being born again. If you don’t know, please talk to a pastor or go to www.godlife.com for more information.
- Second, ask the Lord to show you if in any way you are compromising with the world. To claim to follow Christ, but then to actually act and react like the world and the devil is a travesty and will bring devastation upon our own heads.
- Third, ask the Lord to help love and holiness to be the motive of your heart and the goal to which you aspire. Since God Himself is holy, perfect love, if God is in us and we obey what He shows us, then we can actually live out love and holiness in our everyday life.
So this week, make sure to love every person in front of you: friend, enemy, family, and stranger.
This week, be sure to react in a way that is holy and righteous. Let all of your dealings be full of integrity and honesty.
Always ask the Lord to help you have a motive of glorifying Him and of holy love.
Everyday Christianity has power and tremendous influence when it is full of Jesus’ love and holiness. Your life can help other people get a new life even as God is praised if we simply let Christ shine through in everything we do!
Pastor Michael Johnson 