I want to pose a question to you.  What if Jesus was to come back right now and followed you around on your day to day life?  What would you change?  What would you keep doing?  What would you stop listening to, watching, reading, or playing (ex. Video games)?  If Jesus was to walk with you would you have to justify or explain any of those things or actions?

Even as I write these questions and think about my own answers it is a kick in the pants.  I find myself saying, “but we are only human!”  Yes, God knows that we can’t be perfect that is why He sent His Son, Jesus to die for us.  Yet, we are also told that we are to live a life that is always striving to be more like Christ. “Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. Ephesians 4:15”  The reality is that as we grow in Christ by reading His Word and praying we should also be continually more like Christ.  I used to think that this was just in thoughts, words, and actions, but recently God has been teaching me that it is more than just those areas.  After all His Word says that, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31” The Bible also talks about fully surrendering ourselves to God’s will.  When I really thought about those two things especially it began to click with me that I needed to take a seriously hard look at my life to answer those questions.  Would how I live my life be pleasing to God?  Would it glorify Him?

If this thought freaks you out like it did me then prepare to freak out even more.  God already sees everything, He basically already here.  Not only that; He already sees every secret thought and action.  Is what we are doing breaking His heart or making Him beam with pride?

I believe God is moving in His church.  He is refining His children like never before.  He is calling us to stand out from and ever increasingly “opposite of His Word” world.  We should not be pushing our lines of being in the world but not of it. (John 17:15 & 16)  As the world goes further away from Biblical standards we should increasingly look less like the world.  What I mean by this is think of you standing in one spot on a line and the world continues to move further away from where you are standing.  Our tendency is to move so that the distance between us and the world is never that big of a gap.  However, if we are planted in the Truth of God’s Word and are continually asking Him to refine us that gap should become bigger as we stand firm and the world moves father away.  Is this easy to do?  By all means no, but in my mind it is worth it because the God of the universe who so fiercely loves me asks me to do so and it brings joy to Him when I do.

Take some time, maybe wright out the questions posed in the first paragraph and pray about them.  Ask God to refine you and reveal what you are holding on to what you are using to lessen the gap between you and the world and is He calling you to let it go?  God is strengthening and refining His church as the battle for Truth intensifies.

        ¹¹ And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. ¹² The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. ¹⁴ Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

~Romans 13:11-14