Becoming a better disciple of Christ

I don’t know about you, but I spend a lot of my working day in the pursuit of reasonably well defined targets and a lot of thought and research has gone into establishing what criteria needs to be monitored.  The thought occurred to me that I don’t spend nearly as much time, effort, thought and planning into the pursuit of my spiritual targets as I should do and neither do I correctly make use of the skills that I have to pursue the goal that God has set for me.  

What is my task?

Ecclesiastes  9:10  - Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

God has a plan with what he wants you to do for him before you depart from this life. We will recognise this plan for the opportunities that will be placed before us. For some it might be to preach the word; for others it might be to sing and praise his name and for others it might be as simple as tending to the garden around your Church. No task that God has given is worth any more or any less in spiritual “worth”; each task has its own special place and purpose.

Are we up to the task?

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

We might sometimes doubt that we have the capability to take on what God has placed in our hands and when we read this passage we can be assured that God not call us to out to be insignificant and weak; but to be far more than we can ever imagine.

What can we expect?

• Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This makes it very clear what can happen to if we continue to ignore God’s calling and continue to pursue the way of this world. At the same time the gift of ETERNAL LIFE is what we can expect if we commit our life to Jesus and diligently perform the work, which he will provide for us to do.

What do we need?

• Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We need to realise that we have fallen short of God’s expectation of what we could be. Unless we make a change in what we are doing about our spiritual well being, we will continue to head towards eternal spiritual death.

• 1 Peter 3:18 – For Christ died for our sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

It is never a hopeless situation and a lot of people are confused and ignorant about the simple truth. Jesus himself said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Mathew 11:29

What can we get from these words of Jesus?

• Jesus will accept us just as we are; he knows exactly how our life has made us poor candidates for his love.
• Once we have decided to follow Jesus; all the things of this world that might have been causing personal torment and tribulation will become easy to overcome and triumph over.
• Jesus will be your partner and be with you to help you through any future problems that might come your way.
• Where we were heading towards eternal spiritual death, with Jesus you will find eternal rest and spiritual life.

There is obviously much more that can be said here I hope that you have gained some insight into how we can start working towards becoming a better disciple for Christ.