My life speaks volumes

Who is God? Is he interested in me? Can he be trusted? Is he even worth considering?

Our lives speak volumes about who our God is.

Our attitudes, our decisions, our actions and our priorities. The way we do relationships, the way we approach work, the way we approach problems and the way we spend.

Every one of these things tells people what we think about God.

I have recently been really challenged to think again about what my life says about the God I follow. I have been so wrapped-up in making a good impression since moving, that I seem to have forgotten what my life should really be about. I want my life to mean something. To quote John Piper "I exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things, for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ"

I really recommend watching this short John Piper snippet. I was really challenged by it.

God has the answer

Often we can feel trapped in a cycle of sin, unable to escape. And we can also feel that God will give up on us and stop forgiving us because we keep slipping into the same sin time and again.

“The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this.
First he says: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."
Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."
And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.”

(Hebrews 10:15-18)

Seriously the gospel is amazing! God sees us as we are, and chooses to forgive us anyway at the cost of his son. And then gives us the power to change!

Why do I obey and follow God?

This week I was away on residential training in Swindon, and while I was there I had an awesome conversation with my friend Roxanne. I asked why she’d decided to study German, and we found ourselves talking about German philosophers and Nietzsche in particular. We ended up talking about how he hated religion. And then about how I wished that the word religion would be abolished in relation to Christianity, because Biblical Christianity isn’t about empty ritual and sets of arbitrary rules, but rather about a relationship. I then attempted to explain why I follow and obey God in the context of that relationship. And made a bit of a hash of it, to be honest, but it got me thinking. Why do I obey and follow God?

As is always the case in these types of conversations, I realised what I should have said long after I had the conversation. Ultimately the only reason that I obey and follow God has nothing to do with me at all. It is all God. He is the one who planned from eternity past to set me free from the grasp of sin. He is the one who entered human race and bled and died to break the chains of sin for me. And he is the one who now lives within me, changing my inner self and my attitudes towards sin and God. Only then can I see God’s rules as good and perfect. Only then can I act in gratitude towards a saving God. Only then can I want to please him and love him more and more.

Why do I obey and follow God? Because God has made it possible.