Today's Word

Growing Up

"I began telling people that they should change their hearts and lives and turn to God and do things to show they really had changed." Acts 26:20 (NCV)

                                                                                   A Reflection About Growing Up

How has your life changed as a result of your decision to become a follower of Jesus Christ?

In the above verse the apostle Paul says that to be a Christian means that there is some behavior, attitude, calling, or quality in you that results from Christ at work within you. I am very aware of how difficult this question is to answer. In my weaker moments I tend to wonder if anything is different in me at all. Yet, I can’t just dismiss the question. Am I somehow different to what I was before having become a believer? If I’ve been a believer my whole life, in what way have I matured in the last year or years?

Humility works against such an exercise, but perhaps that very humility is from God. There are many important attitudes that mark believers. One is seeing and facing one’s own sinfulness and being broken by it (yet knowing you’re loved regardless). Another is simply not feeling like doing the hard, Christian thing, yet, rather than giving in, you do it anyway. Satan’s cause is never more in peril than when raw obedience trumps unwillingness.

Have you experienced either of these two “marks” of a Christian? Remembering that a Christian is a person who has accepted what Christ has DONE on the cross, can you add any other changes in your life which are responses to God’s love for you?

Today's Prayer

“Father help me to grow up. I admit that I am far from Christian maturity in my thoughts, behavior and private attitudes. l Yet I claim the label, Christian, because I believe. Help me Lord, especially when my actions fall short of what I believe. In Jesus' Name. Amen”