Devout Christian

Does God's Word ever cause you discomfort? When you read the Bible, does what you read make you feel uneasy? Do you find, when you listen to sermons, that the Scripture seems aimed directly to you? You are experiencing the reality that the Word of God is alive and can read your thoughts and judge your intentions.

Regularly allow the Word of God to wash over you and find any sin or impurity. (Ephesians 5:26)

Always make the connection between your life and what God is saying to you through His Word. Make a habit of taking every word from God seriously, knowing that it is able to judge your heart and mind.

God knows how to bring salvation to your family, your friends, your community and your world. Accordingly, He looks for those who will allow Him to shape them into the instruments He requires to do His divine work.

Clay has no plans of its own, no aspirations for service, nor reluctance to perform its given task. It is just clay. Moldable, pliable, totally submissive to the will of its master.

If your tendency is to tell the Father what you can and cannot do for Him, submit to His agenda and allow Him to shape you into the person He wants you to be. Like clay.

The best indication that we have truly worshiped is a changed heart.

You will not see those around you trusting Jesus until they recognize a clear difference between you and the rest of the world. God wants us to sanctify you as He is holy. When God deals with you, there will be a radical degree of purity about your life that is absolutely different from the world can produce. The world, including those closest to you, will be convinced you serve a Holy God by your consecrated life.

Prayer is not calling God in to bless our activities. Rather, prayer takes us into God's presence, shows us His will, and prepares us to obey Him.

God will use your prayer times to soften your heart and change your focus. As you pray for others, the Holy Spirit will work in your heart so that you have the same compassion for them that God does (Romans 8:26-27).

If you do not love people as you should, pray for them. If you are not as active in God's service as you know He wants you to be, begin praying.

You cannot be intimately exposed to God's heart and remain complacent. The time spent with God will change you and make you more like Christ.

Now, God asks us to lay down our lives on His altar as a living sacrifice. Just as it was in the Old Testament, our sacrifice, once offered, cannot be reclaimed. We belong entirely to Him. We cannot make partial sacrifices of our lives; our offering must be wholehearted.

Therefore, if you are a Christian, your life is not your own. Rather than dying, however, God asks you to live for Him as a living sacrifice. Every day, you are to offer your life to Him for His service. You do not serve Him in your spare time or with your leftover resources. The way you live your life for God is your offering to Him. Relentlessly pursue holiness so that your offering to God is unblemished and acceptable to Him. (Eph. 4:1; Phil. 1:27; 1 Thess. 2:12)