The life of a Christian is not an easy one. It is a life filled with trials, tribulations, temptations and persecutions. But, it is also a life filled with victory, triumph, love and hope of an everlasting life. God has called us to live a lifestyle that is pleasing in his sight and as a Christian I can honestly say it's not always easy. God has not called us to live a perfect life, but as believers in Christ Jesus, we are called to a different “walk” than others are. Behaving as a child of God only one day a week is not enough to live this Gospel. So, here are five ways to help and encourage you to the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.
1. Surrender Your Life
Surrendering your life is essential to live for Christ. Its saying "God, I give you control of my life". Give back to God what He has given to you, and ask God to use you as He sees fit. All of your hopes and dreams--take them and place them in God’s hands. There's this song I love by William McDowell and it's called I Give Myself /away. This song truly defines how to surrender your life. The song says: I give myself away so You can use me. Take my heart, Take my life, as a living sacrifice. All my dreams, all my plans, Lord I place them in your hands. Surrendering your life is recognizing that your life no longer belongs to you. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
2. Read & Study The Word
This may not need to be said, but it is important that believers read and study the scriptures. The Bible tells us to hide the Word in our hearts so that we won't sin against God, but it's not just about sinning against God. It's a word of encouragement. It's a word that says when you've exhausted all your resources and seems like the enemy will get the victory, don't lose heart, because you will see the goodness of God in the land of the living. But, how would you know that if you don't read and study God’s word?
3. Walk the Walk you Talk
And another thing, that's right: you gotta walk the walk you talk. It's not enough to say you're a Christian. It's not enough to say you go to church every Sunday and you pay your tithes (nice job though). If you're not walking and acting like Jesus the way you say you do, then your efforts are rubbish. You say you're a forgiving person, but you can't forgive that guy who lied to you. You say you're a loving person, but you hate that girl that's you work with. As we all know, actions speak louder than words. When you are a child of Christ Jesus you have to live the way you talk. Like I said earlier, you can't live like a child of God one day and decide to be Satan’s child the rest of the week. Your walk must be consistent with the scriptures.
4. Love
Love is the foundation of the Christian faith. It is because of the love that God has for us that Christ left his home in glory to die in our place so we might be reconciled back to God. For God, so loved the world--Christ has called us to live in such a way that those who see us know we belong to Him. The only way people will know that we belong to Him is by us loving one another. Jesus said "they will know you are my disciples by the way you love one another.” Love is also God’s greatest commandments. You are to "love The Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” And we are to "love our neighbor as ourselves.” And lastly, the bible says love covers a multitude of sins. I don't know how much a multitude is, but I'm pretty sure it's a big number, and to tell you the truth, I need a multitude of my sins to be forgiven. But the only way to be forgiven is to love and forgive others.
5. Share The Gospel
Last, but certainly not least, we have to share this Gospel of Christ. We have to go out and tell a friend, tell a stranger, let a lost and dying world know about a living savior's name. Jesus commanded all of us, not just preachers and so forth, but all of us, to go into the world and share the good news until he returns. How could we not share this awesome news with someone? How could we be selfish and not share the power of His Holy Spirit with someone and let them know that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus. And while we are sharing the gospel with someone, we also need to share our personal testimony. So they can see how our God has and is working through us. The book of Revelation says, "They have overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.”
