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Living Our Faith
By, Toni Smothers
Being a consistent Christian can be challenging. We go along feeling pretty good about our walk with the Lord while things run smoothly, but something can suddenly happen that causes us to lose our temper, or to fall short in some other way, and then we realize we are not very good at living the Christian life after all.
The first step to being a Christian is to confess our sins to Christ and turn our lives over to Him each day. We can choose to commit our lives without reserve to Jesus and ask Him to help us walk with Him. When we slip up, we can turn our thoughts to Him and pray immediately for forgiveness. Realize that we can't become a better Christian on our own, or in our own strength. We always need God's help and the resources He has provided to help us grow stronger. In ourselves, we are weak - but when we seek God's help, we discover that the Bible's promise is true: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him" (2 Peter 1:3). It doesn’t matter how many times in a day we must ask Him for pardon because Christ washes the repentant sinner clean throughout that person’s life. Of course, there must be true repentance. We may not repeatedly sin with the idea that God will forgive us later.
Just as we need food to keep us strong physically, so we need spiritual food. God has given us His Word, the Bible, to feed on. We can make the Bible part of our spiritual diet every day, both by studying it on our own and by hearing others teach it. Job said, "I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread" (Job 23:12). Also, God has provided us, through His Spirit, a sensitivity to sinfulness as we respond to His conviction. As our sensitivity increases, we are made stronger.
Between the privilege of prayer and the nurture of fellowship with other believers, we grow incrementally. Prayer connects us with God; fellowship connects us with other Believers. Through these means, God will encourage us and help us to sin less and less. God will never give up on any of us, so don’t give up on yourself. The Christian life is a process into maturity - Enjoy the journey.
Living Our Faith
By, Toni Smothers
Being a consistent Christian can be challenging. We go along feeling pretty good about our walk with the Lord while things run smoothly, but something can suddenly happen that causes us to lose our temper, or to fall short in some other way, and then we realize we are not very good at living the Christian life after all.
The first step to being a Christian is to confess our sins to Christ and turn our lives over to Him each day. We can choose to commit our lives without reserve to Jesus and ask Him to help us walk with Him. When we slip up, we can turn our thoughts to Him and pray immediately for forgiveness. Realize that we can't become a better Christian on our own, or in our own strength. We always need God's help and the resources He has provided to help us grow stronger. In ourselves, we are weak - but when we seek God's help, we discover that the Bible's promise is true: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him" (2 Peter 1:3). It doesn’t matter how many times in a day we must ask Him for pardon because Christ washes the repentant sinner clean throughout that person’s life. Of course, there must be true repentance. We may not repeatedly sin with the idea that God will forgive us later.
Just as we need food to keep us strong physically, so we need spiritual food. God has given us His Word, the Bible, to feed on. We can make the Bible part of our spiritual diet every day, both by studying it on our own and by hearing others teach it. Job said, "I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread" (Job 23:12). Also, God has provided us, through His Spirit, a sensitivity to sinfulness as we respond to His conviction. As our sensitivity increases, we are made stronger.
Between the privilege of prayer and the nurture of fellowship with other believers, we grow incrementally. Prayer connects us with God; fellowship connects us with other Believers. Through these means, God will encourage us and help us to sin less and less. God will never give up on any of us, so don’t give up on yourself. The Christian life is a process into maturity - Enjoy the journey.
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