“For in Him, we live and move and have our being”
(Acts 17:28)
If someone asked you what it meant to be a Christian, what would you say?
So often people believe they are a Christian by process of elimination – “I’m not an atheist, a Muslim, or a Jew, so I must be a Christian.” Others believe that they were born into Christianity as if it were some royal lineage handed down from generation to generation.
However, the bible teaches us that being a Christian is the result of a decision that we personally make, a decision to acknowledge Jesus Christ as God and ask Him to forgive us for a lifetime of disobedience towards Him. But it doesn’t end there! That is just the beginning of a new life in God. It means trusting in that new relationship daily for the Lord to meet our every need.
The Apostle Paul said that in Christ we now live, and move and have our entire being. He was telling us that Christ must be the centre of our lives, and the foundation of our whole being. Being a Christian means living our lives based upon Him so that now we reflect His life, morals and commitment.
If you ask what a Christian is, you can say it is someone who has confessed their sin, and pleaded with God for forgiveness, and has turned their life around to follow Christ. With this act of repentance comes what Peter tells us, “our sins are blotted out and a time of refreshing comes from the Lord’ (Acts 3:19)
Oh, how blessed we are to have our acts of rebellion towards God blotted out, and even greater, how blessed we are to finally have times of refreshing in our lives when the Lord adopts us into his eternal family and becomes our Shepherd, watching over us with His eternal care.