Daily Devotional for July 10, 2010

2 Chronicles 7:14
If my own people will humbly pray and turn back to me and stop sinning, then I will answer them from heaven. I will forgive them and make their land fertile once again.

Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.

Recently, God has been dealing with me about what it truly means to be a Christian. Giving our heart to Jesus and becoming a new creature in Him is not the end… it is the beginning! But sometimes we get bogged down in one thing or another and forget the bigger picture. We fail to recognize what it means to truly be a Christian… Christ’s disciple. I assure you, this is no small thing… and the responsibility that comes with it is enormous! But God equips us with all we need – and more – and we have nothing to fear.

So I have created an outline, based on the word CHRISTIAN. For the next two months or more, we will look at scriptures that outline the new life we have in Christ. With prayerful consideration and study, I have come up with the following outline:

• C - Christ chose us… and died for our sins.
• H - Healing begins… and we become new creatures.
• R - We are restored to right living – rescued and redeemed.
•  I  - We have been instilled with the Holy Spirit and Christ’s power to reach others.
• S - We are called to share the Good News of Christ… and God’s love.
• T - We are called to teach by example… to emulate Christ to others.
•  I - We are called to imitate Jesus… and be His hands and feet to others.
• A - We are called to address the needs of others in Christ’s name.
• N - We are called to nurture one another.

I will undoubtedly step on some toes during this study – and mine are already a little tender just from reviewing the scriptures I’ll be using. But I believe this is important. I am convinced there is so much more we can do to reach people for Christ … and to minister to one another in the process. I am excited… and I hope you will be, too. 1 Peter 4:1 says, “Christ suffered here on earth. Now you must be ready to suffer as he did, because suffering shows that you have stopped sinning.”

Truly, there is no way we can begin to experience anything remotely close to the suffering of Christ. Yet there will be times when sacrifice, weariness, persecution from others, and more will be extremely uncomfortable and give us room to question our faith. As we study and grow, we will learn to handle these feelings and work through them… to the glory of Christ.

We will never be perfect Christians… but we can be better! I pray you will stick with me for this study and see where God takes us. Any time God is showing us new things, it’s gonna be great!

©2010 Debbie Robus