‘Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.’ ~ 2 Timothy 2:15
Originally, I was going to include a second post about ‘the way’ following on from this topic in the last post. This would continue to speak about the way to gain a relationship with God. We saw walking in the way is about having faith in Jesus, but it’s also important to stress that truly having faith in Jesus means living for him, because this rightly expresses trusting faith. While following Jesus with one's whole life and all their heart cannot save a person from their sin, and only faith in Jesus' work in our place can, living for God with these aims expresses a true faith that receives the saving promises of Jesus work. This is because God knows our whole lives, and empty prayers or affirmations that the gospel is true, which aren’t backed up by our lived response to Jesus, won’t work. This is what Scripture says, even if it also highlights the subjectively relational truth that we can’t perfectly live for God while we continually offer our whole lives to him.
So, following God is an essential part of expressing the trusting faith that receives what Jesus has done for us, but this also entails the joy of growing in relationship with God. Scripture points to the joyful opportunity of following God, seeing it as a desperate desire and joyful need that Christians experience as they seek to put God first in their lives. To treat living for God as some kind of burden is to misunderstand it. This is because God made us to worship him for our highest satisfaction and fulfillment. Although, this satisfaction should not be confused with worldly comfort, since living for God sometimes entails a joy that’s bound up in difficult and sacrificial circumstances for his glory.
The reason for not doing a post about following Jesus is because I wrestle with whether a blog post should replace Scripture in this capacity. The Bible, God’s word to us, is meant to disciple us, as the Spirit applies it to our hearts. When it comes to discipleship, the words of Jesus must be encountered in the Bible. This could mean reading the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) for yourself or going to a church to hear them taught. God’s word speaks so much about discipleship that one post won’t get anyone from ‘zero to hero’ as Jesus' disciple. If you have accepted the gospel, discipleship is also a slow process, yet also an amazing journey, of growing in relationship with your creator who loves you.
This doesn’t mean I don’t highly value Christian websites and resources that have supplemented my own Bible reading and growth at church, but to replace church and personal devotion with a blog is not God’s will. Part of the reason for not thinking deeply about Christian living on this blog in the future is also the desire to focus more on sharing the gospel online and to create content that explains and shares core truths about the gospel. The right attitude alongside this is to encourage people to consider the transforming power of church, and personal devotion in God’s word and prayer, over the online ‘snack food’ of influencer posts and opinions. This is important even if such content does supplement the important ways we connect to God personally and also redeems online spaces in a way that honours God. Despite this, I do hope to reflect on Christian living from time to time.
I've also decided to post fortnightly instead of weekly. This is backed by a desire to reflect more carefully on Scripture. I want to be someone who correctly handles the word of truth and who does not need to be ashamed, as 2 Timothy 2:15 says (also 1 Cor. 4:1).
In the next post I hope to get back to John 14:6 and what it means when Jesus says he is the truth.
This post was written in advance and automatically published.