What does it truly mean to walk with Christ? How do we know and show that we are on the right path? How can we show Christ’s love for the lost through our walk with Him? Questions like these have been on the hearts and minds of Christians for centuries and I know I have had my bout with them as well. Here are some tips and pointers to hopefully ensure or enlighten your path.
#1 LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL HEART, SOUL, MIND AND STRENGTH
God doesn’t want to be second in your life, He wants to be first! He doesn’t want you to be part way in it, He wants you fully committed. Our relationship to God is like a marriage, you can’t be sometimes married and sometimes not, no, either you’re married or you’re not. And yes, you can have a relationship with God just one on one. Do you think the creator of all things is not powerful enough to get to know you? That he is so limited on his power that he can only communicate through a prophet or priest? NO! And just like He wants to know you, He also wants you to know Him. This is fundamental to being an effective Christian. Once you have grasped that relationship with the true and living God, you’ll want nothing more in life than His will. Let’s discuss what it means to give and want His will with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
First is your heart. Don’t put other things and objects over your heart before God. Have you ever been passed over by another employee at your work, even though you know you did more work than they did but the boss still chose to promote the other? That’s how we treat God when we put our wants and needs over Him in our hearts. You see, God doesn’t want just part of your heart, He wants the whole thing. He’s worked hard in your life to bless you. He doesn’t view your heart as a time-share where He is there part of the time and then it gets turned over to someone else. God sees your heart as His home. He wants to dwell in there and have full reign and authority in your heart. If you allow God to reign over your heart, your soul will follow close behind.
Speaking of soul, that is the next topic of God’s greatest commandments. But, what is a soul? Because nobody has seen a soul or know what it looks like, makes it very hard to determine what we are talking about. I have heard some people say that your heart is you soul but I would have to disagree. God distinctly separates the two. I believe, and this is my personal belief, that the soul is more like an engine placed within ourselves. I believe it is the breath of God in our lives. We have a fleshly body here on earth that is susceptible to the elements and nature of the earth and when we die, this body will return to the earth, for it is made up from the dust of the earth. While a soul, is the life that God has given us. And like the heart, we can decide whether to let if follow God or not to follow God. God gave us full control over our bodies and what goes in to them as well, including our souls. The actions we take and the life we lead are directly linked to our souls. If we allow our souls to pursue the path that God has called us to, our lives will have no choice but to follow that path. And our minds will help keep our souls on that path of righteousness.
The mind is the weakest part of the four that Jesus said to follow God with, and because it is so susceptible to the things of this world, it is the first to be attacked. We never know when the enemy will rise against us or how. He may even rise in our most vuleranble state which is sleep. He pollutes our thoughts and dreams with lust and violence to distract us from keeping our mind on God. This is when we need to focus on the spiritual warfare that is going on around us. Reading Ephesians 6 is a good way to get our heads back in the game and back on God and his will. God will strengthen us for the battles to come when we are focused on him.
Strength is a hard one to describe. When this word is mentioned, we automatically think of a physical attribute. The world’s strong man competitions come to mind or an image of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the 1960’s Mr. Universe. However, strength doesn’t just rely on body mass and muscle, but in the sense that Jesus used it, it relies and determination and will. The enemy wants not to keep pursuing the things of God so he puts money in our way or lust or other things of this world in hopes that we will turn aside from following God and pursue that which is in front of us. This analogy always brings to mind of a dog with a stick on his back hanging over his head and at the end stick is a bone. The dog will follow the bone even if it means he falls of a cliff or crosses a busy road. We are like that dog when the enemy places our bone over our faces. We need to take back a moment and really get a good grasp on the bigger picture. When we find ourselves in trouble, we need to think and pray about whether we are following the bone, or our we determined to pursue God. God will get us out of trouble if we turn and rely on Him.
#2 LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
This commandment is simpler to understand, mainly because it’s so blunt. But I find that is harder to follow than the others. I think because we don’t know what our neighbors are like. So many people in America don’t know who they are living next to, what their names are, if they have kids or even what their hobbies are. When we don’t know who our neighbors are, how then can we love them? In reality, we are afraid to get to know our neighbors for fear of popping our little bubbles that we built. Well, I believe Jesus was a bubble popper. He destroyed the notion of the Pharisee’s being righteous. He threw out the notion of the money changers. He shuck every thought and concern about God for the rest of the time this world will be around. So yes, we too should pop our bubbles and get to know our neighbors and love on them despite what we differences we have. If your neighbor is gay, love on them. If neighbor is Musilim, love on them. If your neighbor is Aethist, love on them. For if you love on your neighbor, how much more will God love on you? Show them that Jesus didn’t just die for you, but forever one. He didn’t do it for fame, fortune and glory. No, he died for the love He has for everyone. Show them that love and and plant a seed for God to use in their hearts.
So, I hope this helped. Keep yourself to God always and love on everyone. May God be with you always, Amen.
