Author | Seth Newman |
I was saved as a seven year old boy. I had no I had idea what that really meant, but I knew that I was accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior. As I have grown physically and mentally, I have also grown spiritually, in ways that I never could have imagined as a seven-year-old kid. I still have even more growing to do than I realize, and God is still going to work in me in ways that I can’t imagine. God will work in your life too, but first you need to realize that you need God, and you need to be willing to let God shape you and teach you.
Our spiritual growth tends to happen in spurts here and there, just like physical growth. Most of the time, many of us live in “boxes.” We go back and forth between our “Christian box” and our “everyday box.” On Sunday we get in “Christian boxes” and go to church, where we listen to teaching about the Bible. On Monday morning, we get up and hop straight into our “everyday boxes” and live life with little thought about Jesus. We act and think as though Jesus only matters on Sundays, even though Jesus should matter more to us than any possession, entertainment, or work. Occasionally, we go to conferences or concerts, where we feel like we’re on a spiritual mountaintop, but within a few days, we go right back to our “everyday box,” without any real change or growth at all.
Living in two different “boxes” is not the way to live close to Jesus or to grow in your relationship with him. It is a selfish way to live. We are saying to God, “You can have one day of the week, but the rest of my life is all about me.” You will never begin to live closer to Jesus unless you are willing to let him have your live. All of it. This is a process, and it starts by asking God to teach you, and by getting into God’s Word every day. I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, but I have to force myself to start getting up every morning to read my Bible and pray, because otherwise, I will never get around to doing it.
Getting up early is only one of the sacrifices that living for Jesus requires, but is Jesus really worth that much? Yes! Thousands of Christians throughout history have been willing to die because Jesus was worth more to them than their very lives. They have been crucified, burned at the stake, and been torn limb from limb because they understood how much Jesus was worth. How much is Jesus worth to you? Is he even worth as much as sleep, or an hour of television? Do you intentionally take time to read God’s Word and seek to hear him?
I certainly can’t claim to be a better person than any of you, but I am learning how to live for Jesus, and to give up the things I want so that I can live for him. I’m not just spitting out facts at you, but I am writing this to you out of my own experience, because I want you to learn who Jesus is and how to live for him. The more sacrifices I make to pursue Jesus, the more I love him, and the less sacrifices really feel like sacrifices. God is becoming real to me in every moment of life, and I want more than ever to be near him all the time.
Start pursuing Jesus. You will find that he is loving and kind, and that he will teach you more than you ever thought you could learn. Read the Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to use it to guide you and convict you where you have made a mistake. I am not trying to change you myself, but to encourage you to let God move and work in your heart. Be willing to let God change you and to give up comforts to follow him. Soon, your default will no longer be to please yourself, but God.