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So
what is a Christian life? The Bible tells us, in Colossians 3:3,
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ
in God. We aren't physically dead, but we die to a former life of
selfishness and thinking we can accomplish everything by ourselves, including
earning our eternal salvation. Once we set aside all of our previous selfish
self, we see we're then guided by God in all areas of our lives. The first
step then is to give God control of all areas of our lives.
We can't, however, get rid of the "me attitude" and
accept the "God attitude" without two important tools - faith and trust. It's
not enough to believe God exists or the Bible is God's Word, but also God
will do exactly what he said. Without this belief, this faith, we can't
utilize the second tool, trust. Then, once we understand God always holds
true to his word, we can trust him with everything that occurs in our lives.
Non-Christians, as well as some Christians, depend on their own efforts to
accomplish their goals. The drawback to this way of living is that the
attainment or loss of the goal is always affected by outside sources -
people, time, weather, etc. For the Christian who has placed all their faith
and trust in God, nothing can keep us from obtaining anything unless, and
only if, it goes against the timing or will of God.
A Christian must put their trust in God in every aspect
of life. We must trust him to help us overcome our temptations, control our
emotions that can lead to sin, our selfish motivations, or anything else that
comes from within us. We must also trust him fully to assist us with the
outside influences; where we live, our careers, our families, our health,
people we interact with, etc. We've all heard people tell us "give it to
God", but without a deep faith and trust in God we can't do it, we feel we
have to do it on our own. Doing everything on our own, we have to live with
worry. By trusting God to help us through it all, we can only have peace.
We can overcome all obstacles when we completely trust
God. Hannah Whithall Smith very eloquently summed it up. "We have most of us
tried to do it for ourselves at first, and have grievously failed; then we
discover, from the Scriptures and from our own experience, that is something
we are unable to do, but that the Lord Jesus Christ has come on purpose to do
it, and that He will do it for all who put themselves wholly into His hands
and trust Him without reserve." [from The Christian's Secret to a Happy
Life]
Consecration
Consecration means to devote solemnly to a purpose.
From the day we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we
become consecrated. This means we decide to live our life for God, not
ourselves. We're told in 1 Timothy 4:4-5, For
everything God has created is good ... because it is consecrated by the word
of God and prayer. However, we must be aware of the fact that the
Christian life is a process, a continuing growth. Often, new Christians, and
some older ones as well, don't feel they're living for God. Set aside your
feelings. If you've given your life over to Christ, take things one day at a
time. Just because you haven't yet dedicated some of your time to working at
a homeless shelter or donated money to the poor doesn't mean you're not
living for God. There's a line in a song that says a lot: "Little is much if
God is in it." Taking care of your children or helping a co-worker is doing
something for God if you keep him in mind and shut out the thoughts of
anything these tasks can obtain for you. Once you place all of your trust in
God, always remember it's a fact, you're consecrated. God's purpose is to
help you in all things, including helping you to do things for him.
Faith
Faith is a belief and trust in God; complete trust.
Faith and trust should always coexist. Faith without
trust is possible, but then neither of them can be complete. If we say we
believe in God, but we don't trust him to carry out his will, then we don't
completely believe in God. Trust can't exist without belief. We can't trust
God or anybody else if we can't believe they're telling us the truth.
Furthermore, if you profess a belief in God yet deny the accuracy of the
Bible, then you don't |
