How Should I Live as a Christian?: What Is God’S Will for Us in the Many Aspects of Our Daily Lives?

1

God Is Near

G od created us and loves us. He made all people and desires to communicate with us, spend time with us, and be with us. You can see this in the garden of Eden in the time of Adam and Eve.

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (Gen. 3:9 KJV)

This desire for a relationship with people and to communicate with them was not only true for Adam and Eve.

The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. (Ps. 145:18)

God is a God of love but also a God of justice. Already in the beginning, when the first people, Adam and Eve, were living, sin was committed toward God when they disobeyed Him. As a result, they were destined to die physically, as well as all their descendants. But Adam and Eve were not the only ones who committed sin. We all committed sin. Because of that, we are not allowed to enter into God’s glory.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23)

In His righteousness, God cannot leave sin unpunished. He cannot pretend it never happened. Otherwise He would not be righteous anymore. Even though we all deserve to die—not only a physical death but also an eternal death—God, in His mercy, still wants us to go to heaven and be with Him forever. Heaven is a place where there will be no more mourning or crying or pain but eternal joy and happiness.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Rev. 21:4 KJV)

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isa. 35:10 KJV)

Therefore, He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die on the cross for all of our sins. Jesus suffered greatly for us. But because He was sinless Himself, death could not hold Him captive, and He rose from the death after three days. In this way, He conquered death. This means we do not have to face eternal death anymore. Instead we can be with God in heaven after we die if we turn away from our sins, ask God for forgiveness, and accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(1 John 1:9 KJV)

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:23 KJV)

In this way, God displayed His love toward us. He gave His only begotten Son up for us, the one who is very dear to Him. Therefore He is our great Savior! Is this not something to be very thankful for?

While Jesus was living on the earth for about thirty-tree years, He obeyed God in everything, spoke the words God wanted Him to speak, and did the things God wanted Him to do. When we read the Bible, we can learn a lot more about how God wants us to live through the great example Jesus displayed for us by living a perfect and sinless life and by many other teachings God gave to us since the beginning of the earth. This life that God wants us to live is the best life there is because He loves us and has a good plan for our lives.

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jer. 29:11–13)

You might think it is difficult to follow God. Maybe you feel like a slave who should and should not do certain things. But that is not the case at all. We are children of God. The things God has written for us in His Word or tells us personally to do come from a heavenly Father who loves us and guides us for our own good.

To keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? (Deut. 10:13 KJV)

How can we think we know better than God what is good for us?

"Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—an earthen vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’? (Isa. 45:9)

Even nature itself obeys God. The sun shines, the clouds give their rain, birds make nests for their young and take care of them (how many fathers and mothers are abandoning their children?), a male animal mates with a female animal, etc.

"Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons; and the turtledove and the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration; but My people do not know the ordinance of the LORD. (Jer. 8:7)

How will we be able to walk in God’s plan for our lives if we do not follow God? We are depriving ourselves from many good things if we disobey God and do not want to follow Him. Are we not rather following the works of the Devil if we disobey God and do things against God’s will? Who do we wish to follow: God or the Devil?

If we obey God and keep His Word, we receive the promise that God will be with us. Jesus said,

If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23 KJV)

Then we will also receive the promise that we belong to Him.

‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ … (Ex. 19:5–6)

God wants to be near to us, but do you want to be with Him?

If you want to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and be with God forever, then you can pray the following prayer or use your own words. If we do not turn away from our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, then how can we face God on the day that we are judged for all our deeds? But if we accept the sacrifice of Jesus, we will not be judged.

Dear Father God,

For all this time, I have not truly known You, but I want to know You. I have committed sin in my life, and I am sorry about that. Will You please forgive all my sins and accept me as Your child? I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son, who died on the cross for all our sins, including mine, and rose from the death. By His death I am set free so I may come to You. Will You come into my life and make me new? Help me, Father, to live a life that is pleasing in Your sight, and guide me, so that I may know Your way. Dear Father, please pour Your Holy Spirit out on me and give me gifts so I can use them to be a blessing for other people. Help me to love You above all and to love my neighbor as myself. I thank you, Father, for I believe You will do this. Thank You for Your forgiveness and grace. Thank You for accepting me as Your child. In Jesus Your Son’s name I pray. Amen.

2

What Is Sin, and How Can I Overcome It?

W hen you think of sin, you can think of fairly obvious things like adultery, stealing, murder, and idolatry. But there is more to it! We have to look at God’s standards and not merely to the standards humans made because they can fall short and even be very unbiblical. This is what Jesus said:

And He said to them, Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. (Mark 7:6–8)

Sin is not merely the wrong things we do. It is also our wrong thoughts. Sin comes from within ourselves. Therefore, we cannot blame anyone else for our sins. Let us look at the example of Eve. The snake enticed Eve to commit sin, but he did not force her. She made the decision not to believe God and followed the snake and her own desires (Gen. 3).

And He was saying, That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. (Mark 7:20–23)

Our hearts’ intention is very important.

The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts. (Prov. 17:3 KJV)

Our responses to the things that happen are also important.

Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. (Prov. 17:5 KJV)

In the Bible is a short summary given about things that are sinful. These are called works of the flesh, which are contrary to the works of the Spirit of God.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19–21)

Two other Scriptures in which is written what is sinful in God’s sight are these: Ex. 20:1–17 and Lev. 19:11–19.

As you can see from the above Scripture in Galatians, we should take sin seriously. I met several people during evangelism, who were having a wrong perspective about what it means to be a Christian. They thought that only believing in Jesus is enough to be saved, and that it does not matter how you live—good or bad—because Jesus died for all your sins anyway. As a result, they think that you can keep on sinning—willingly and knowingly—after you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. But becoming a Christian means: repenting, turning away from your sins, turning to God, and pursuing to do what is pleasing in His sight.

… that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance. (Acts 26:20)

If you continue to live in sin—without being bothered about it—then there is no true repentance and turning away from your evil ways. John the Baptist, who prepared the way before Jesus, also spoke about the importance of putting your faith into action. He clearly said that people should do what is pleasing in God’s sight together with repentance of sins in order to be saved.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. "The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matt. 3:7–10)

If we are sinning, we are not serving God, but we are serving the Devil.

In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. (1 John 3:10 KJV)

Besides that, we hurt God when we sin against Him.

… how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me … (Ezek. 6:9)

If we truly love God, then we do not want to hurt Him. However, it is possible that, once you are a Christian, there are some things in your life that change gradually. We do not become a mature