Many of us deeply desire to live for God. In fact, I would go so far to say that many of us believe living a life which pleases God is THE objective of our lives. This is good!
Unfortunately, I also think many of us struggle when it comes to knowing how we can do this. Now some of us may like to think we are too spiritual for such practical considerations and thus echo the sentiment of the so-called “Christ group” in 1 Corinthians 1 (more on that in my next post). For the rest, however, I would like to propose the following idea:
Living for God is a daily decision.
Maybe you think, “Duh.” Again, very good. For many of us, though, I fear we don’t often think of it this way. We tend to think: “Living for God is a lifetime decision.” No doubt this is true. But saying it this way somehow makes the whole idea of following Christ a little too vague. It’s true and it sounds good, but what does it mean?
I think we should remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:34: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” In short, worry about today before you worry about tomorrow. I think all of us would benefit from remembering that! We often spend today making big plans about how we are going to serve God and do wonderful and great things for Him tomorrow. What we have been given, however, is today.
Taking up our cross and following Jesus is a daily decision. Telling our friends, family, and neighbors about His good news is a daily decision. And loving others in the same way He demonstrated His love for us is a daily decision.
In Romans 12:1, Paul says that we are to present our lives as a “living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” calling it our “spiritual act of worship.” Again, this is a daily decision. Worship is not something confined to a once-a-week gathering in a building accompanied by musical instruments. It is a moment-to-moment, daily decision to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30).
So let us make this decision daily. Let us arise early in the morning to pray over today’s schedule, asking God that He might live through us this day. Let us humbly live in a continuous attitude of prayer this day. Let us sacrificially love God and others this day. Let us proclaim the glorious good news of His boundless grace this day.
If we make this daily commitment, I have a sneaky suspicion we will one day look back and find that it has indeed been one for a lifetime.
Soli Deo gloria.
