I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
Following the Way of Jesus
Discipleship is at the center of the Christian life. To be a disciple means to be a learner. It means following after Jesus, and patterning our life after His.
Jesus tells us that the starting point of following Him is to deny ourselves. Denying ourselves means we choose to put Jesus’ desires above our own. This means that we must come to recognize that we do not have all the answers, or know the right way to go through life.
Discipleship is not something we do once or twice. It is a lifestyle that must be lived out each and every day. We will spend our entire lives becoming more like Jesus.
The way of life Jesus modeled was to suffer on the cross. When we deny ourselves, we choose to humbly follow Jesus. And as we become more like Jesus, we will also need to take up our cross. We will also suffer for doing good, and for denying things that seem enticing in the moment, but ultimately keep us from God. But when we bear our suffering, we represent Christ to those around us.
The paradox of following Jesus is that when we give up our life for His sake, we receive eternal life in return. When we hold onto our life and keep it from Jesus, we don’t get to experience the abundant life that He promises.
Take some time today to consider how you’re living a life of discipleship. Take inventory on the ways you are denying yourself and living for Christ, or living selfishly for your own pleasure and gain. Commit to following Jesus no matter how hard the path gets. And pray for strength and endurance as you follow Him.
Keep it Up
Do you remember the last time you were completely exhausted? Maybe you spent tons of time and energy working on a difficult project. Maybe you felt depleted after helping everyone else around you—physically or emotionally. Maybe hard situations and complex circumstances made you feel like giving up.
All of us grow tired at some point.
Paul, the writer of Galatians, knew that the people he was writing to would also become tired of the work they were doing. During Paul’s time, there was a lot of persecution and hurting people, and Paul was writing to encourage them in the work they were doing.
Inside Paul’s encouragement to the Galatians is this truth:
Even godly people will tire of doing good things.
That’s why Paul encourages everyone to continue to push forward in doing good. We should continue to help people. We should continue to share the hope of Jesus with others. We should continue to live as God would want us to—especially when things get hard.
God knows that we’ll ...
