First, I want to ask this question: How much do you know about God?

Do you know where to find this answer? The answer that most people give and the one that everyone thinks is the right answer is “in the Bible”. That is true, God reveals a lot about Himself in His Word.

Do you read it? I don’t mean a passage or two in church, I mean daily, with purpose. Asking Him questions about it while you read so that He can show you the meaning and the message that is meant for you in it.

Your salvation is linked to God’s Word because it was the Word made flesh that came to us as Jesus and died on the cross to save us. But, there are many people that just attend church and never look for more out of the scripture than what they get from the preacher. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us from Genesis to the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It shows us His character and as much as we can handle on how He thinks about things.

God wants a relationship with you like the one that you have with your wife or husband. Let me tell you a story:

I read this testimony of an elderly missionary who was returning from the foreign field to the United States to live out the days he had left with his married daughter in the Midwest. Upon arriving on the California coast he boarded a bus to begin his trip across the country. The first night the bus stopped in Las Vegas. He had been out of the United States for more than thirty years. He had never been to Las Vegas. He checked into a hotel and took a walk down the strip. Although it was close to midnight, it looked like midday, because of all the lights. As he walked down the strip he heard the loud music, saw the amazing hotels, and even went to a car show where he saw the world’s finest automobiles. He saw the games being played in the casinos and heard the money coming out of the slot machines. He saw the marquees announcing the amazing entertainers. He saw the drink specials announced and the amazing food advertised in the restaurants. Eventually he went back to his room in the high-rise hotel where he was staying. He entered the room but didn’t turn on the light. He walked across the room and opened the curtains. In the quietness of his room he got on his knees in front of the window, looked down at the Vegas strip, then into the more impressive lights of the heavens, and prayed this prayer, “God, I thank you that tonight I haven’t seen anything I want more than I want you.”

Idleman, Kyle (2011-05-24). Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus

There is no greater testament of faith and love toward your Savior than that, and that is what He desires of you. Is it possible for us to have that kind of relationship with our Heavenly Father? Emphatically, YES! He created the entire universe for His glory and to tell His story to us even if we can’t read. God loves every person on earth and until they realize that, they are missing out on the relationship of their life.

Many people think that following Jesus is going to cut into their “fun stuff” but that depends on what their fun consists of.

Have you ever considered what Jesus meant when He said, in Luke 9:23, to “deny yourself and take up your cross daily and follow me?”

In denying yourself, you have to consider the relationship that Jesus’ disciples considered themselves having with Him. Which was that of a bondservant, one who serves out of love to his Master and not because he has to.

Regarding taking up your cross, Jesus is speaking of your burden or the sacrifice that you make in being a Christian.  To us, that means putting Him first and foremost in our daily life. We cannot do this in our own strength but through the power of the Holy Spirit we can and we must! The outside world, outside of the Church, only sees Jesus through us and our actions and when those actions don’t line up with what is considered Christian behavior the church gets a bad reputation. That is when you hear things like, “that is where all the hypocrites go, and I am not going there”.

It doesn’t take but one instance of someone seeing you or someone in the church or even in your family and the word will spread to the point of no one coming but the faithful few. In the times that we are living in, we can’t afford for the body of Christ to be divided or the world to see it that way. Satan loves it when there are divisions and strife in the Church because as long as we are dealing with problems, no matter how trifling they may be, we aren’t effective witnesses for Christ.

We can be better because we are new creatures in Christ and we must show that to the world. If you haven’t made that decision to follow Jesus please do so today. He is only a prayer away. Ask Him to come in because once He does and you start living a surrendered life daily, nothing will ever be the same.