Learning to Live a Life for God

If you are a member of the U.S. Army, your life is committed to the cause of defending the United States of America and her allies. You spend months of your life training body and mind for the sake of becoming a better defender. You are obedient to the instructions of commanding officers in order to be organized and responsive in combat. You are prepared to give your life, if necessary, to maintain freedom.

In much the same way, a Christian is a soldier in the cause of advancing Christ’s kingdom. He or she is committed to giving everything to that cause. But what does this look like? How can Christians really live their lives for God? What does it take? What is expected?

Living a Life for God Means Learning the Bible.

You are not left without answers. The entire Christian belief system and lifestyle requirements are summed up in one book—the Bible. God’s Word is living and powerful (Hebrews 4:12). It has the power to change your life as you remain obedient and submissive to it. Don’t neglect the touchstone of faith—the Bible. It is God’s love letter to you. It is your source of answers. It is the solution to life’s complexities. The Bible is God’s Word. Living for God means learning that precious book.

Living a Life for God Means Total Life Commitment.

Do you know what it’s like to live life in total abandon to one central consuming cause? That’s the Christian life. A doctor is committed to saving lives and healing bodies. A lawyer is committed to winning cases and defending justice. An athlete is committed to winning games and breaking records. A Christian is committed to passionately knowing God and giving every part of his or her life to God.

Living life for God means that you surrender to God every area of your life. If you are a student, study for God. If you are a friend, be a friend for God. Live life for God in the details. In conversation, are you making God a part of what you talk about? If you spend time on the Internet, are you involved in Internet student evangelism or some other Internet student ministries? Is there some way that you are involved in college evangelism?

If God is part of your life at all, He must be all of your life. When God called His disciples, He wasn’t calling them on a part-time job or to volunteer service on the weekends. He was asking for complete life commitment. That’s why Peter and John totally forsook their secular occupation. That’s why Luke left a lucrative white-collar job to follow the Rabbi. That’s why each of the disciples followed Christ to the very end—even when it ended in martyrdom.

Living a Life for God Means Sharing This Life with Others.

True life for God is not a private event. Life for God is lived out loud, on full display to everyone who watches. As Jesus commanded before He left the earth, “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Paul, one of the finest examples of someone who lived his life for God, was thrown in jail for his faith. Even there, he could say, “It has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.” Nothing stopped him. Everyone knew. Do your friends know that you are a Christian? When people are around you for any amount of time, do they get the idea that you are living your life for God?

Life lived for God is not life lived in a toilsome bondage to a cruel taskmaster. Life lived for God is the only truly fulfilling way to live. (Matthew 11:29b-30: …for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.) God calls us and He equips us, investing us with joy, power, and true fulfillment to live in total abandon to the glorious cause! Meditate on the Word of God, surrender every detail of your life to the will of God, and live in such a way that your commitment is unmistakable, contagious, and glorifying to God.

Are Miracles Only for Believers?

Have you every thought about God’s attributes? God is all-powerful. God is infinitely wise. God is all knowing. God is forever. God is holy. God is love. God is all-present. God is merciful. God is gracious. God is sovereign. God is faithful. God is just. God is good. In short, God is awesome. These are some of the glorious principles of Christianity.

This awesome God is capable of working miracles. A study of God and miracles and the principles of Christianity reveals that there have been three ages of concentrated miracles: the Exodus, the prophetic ministry of Elijah and Elisha, and Jesus’ life and inauguration of the church. But as we reviewed in the list of God’s attributes above, God is amazingly powerful. No one can say that miracles are not happening today. Why would God work miracles? For believers? For nonbelievers? Let’s dig into the biblical information on God and miracles and find out if miracles are for believers or nonbelievers.

Faith and Miracles During the Exodus

During the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, God worked a lot of miracles. Beginning with God changing Moses’ staff into a snake, to the falling of manna, to water from the rock, and to the parting of the Red Sea, God was busy performing miracles. Who were these miracles for? First of all, they were for Israel. That should be obvious. God also worked miracles to impress people who were definitely not believers. Exodus 9:14 tells us that God sent plagues and worked miracles in order to tell Pharaoh, definitely an nonbeliever, that Yahweh was God alone. Thus, God worked miracles for believing Israel and for nonbelieving Pharaoh.

God and Miracles During the Ministry of Elijah and Elisha

Many miracles occurred during the ministry of two special prophets in Israel’s history—Elijah and Elisha. In God’s power, they did things like multiply food, raise people from the dead, pray fire down from heaven, divide rivers, strike people with blindness, and heal dying people. Why? For believers? In many cases, yes. But consider the very first miracle of Elijah—praying down a drought upon the land (1 Kings 17:1). That miracle was definitely for the wicked King Ahab and for the sins of unbelieving Israelites. Even Elijah’s biggest miracle—that of praying down fire upon a sacrifice—was a grand display for the nation’s false prophet club (1 Kings 18). Again, we see that the main spectators of these miracles were people who were nonbelievers, God-haters, and false prophets.

Miracles During Jesus’ Ministry and the Early Church

The next stage of miracle-intensive activity that we read about is during the life of Jesus and during the early church. Miracles were happening all the time from the hand of Jesus and then through the ministry of Peter, Paul, and other apostles. Perhaps one of Jesus’ most notable miracles was raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11). The biggest fallout from this miracle came from Jesus’ most ardent enemies—the Pharisees. For the most part, the Pharisees, even though they were religious, did not believe in Jesus at all. They were nonbelievers, and Jesus worked miracles often to their extreme anger. At the very beginning of the church, the Day of Pentecost, the disciples came out from hiding and started speaking in tongues. With this miraculous gift of communicating to everyone in their own native tongue, the apostles preached to thousands of people. Again, in this situation, the miracles were for nonbelievers.

What is the Ultimate Reason that God Works Miracles?

Ultimately, He wants to bring glory to Himself. He may do that to spread His fame to believers, but He may put His character on display to nonbelievers, too. No, nonbelievers are not miracle workers, but as nonbelievers see God work miracles, they get a perspective of the greatness of God. Those attributes of God, those core principles of Christianity, are on display when nonbelievers witness God’s miraculous work.

Awesome

What do you think of when you hear that word?

Awesome. Cool. Sick. Fun. Sweet. God. Song. Emotion. Whatever.

Now I ask you, what is awe? What composes the word ‘awesome’?

To remain academically honest, I looked up awesome. Here are some synonyms: amazing, appalling, breathtaking, ghostly, grand, hairy, imposing, majestic, solemn, uncanny, alarming, and astonishing.

Next I looked up simply awe, since my first answer was not satisfactory. This is what I got: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like: in awe of God.

~(Thank You Dictionary.com)~

An overwhelming feeling of reverence, fear and admiration.

I present to you that our culture has taken the word awesome and degraded it. Do we ever recognize God’s awesomeness? Are we ever overwhelmed by his immense power? Are we ever overwhelmed with fear when we just begin to imagine what we deserve from such a powerful God? Are we ever truly in awe of His unyielding love?

God is an amazingly powerful God – He spoke the world into existence; and He’s omnipotent – all powerful. God is powerful. That speaks for itself. His power is so immense that He flooded the entire earth, it is so immense that He stopped time – held the sun in the sky – just so that the Israelites might have victory. He is so powerful, that when the Philistines so much as had the ark in their possession, disease broke out; so powerful, so holy, that the seventy Israelites that looked inside the ark when it came back died where they stood. So powerful, that he decimated Sodom and Gomorrah for their immorality. God is powerful; that much is clear.

Now think of what God could do with that power if He were not merciful, if He were to unleash His wrath on all of his deserving creation. All have fallen short of God’s glory, all have sinned, and all deserve death, deserve his wrath. That means that You and I are both at the mercy of that awesomely powerful God. We deserve His wrath, we deserve the worst kind of pain we could imagine, and worse. Just think of what happened to Christ. Okay, He suffered horrible things on earth. But that was nothing compared to God’s wrath. That was the wrath of Man. Imagine God’s wrath who is infinitely more powerful than we are. Imagine that and be filled with fear.

Finally, think of God’s love. His power is awesome, His wrath is awesome, but we yet live – why? It’s because God loves us. John 3:16 is a well quoted verse. It basically says that God sent His only Son to die by our hands, so that we may be with Him. God sent His Son, to suffer His awesome wrath, just so that we could be together with Him. Is that not awe inspiring love? So it’s not only the love that keeps us from suffering His wrath, but love beyond that; so that we can go to heaven and be with Him. Is that not amazing? Is that not awesome?

Attributes of God

Attributes of God
Have you ever wondered about God’s true nature? A breakdown of His character, as revealed in the Bible, can be discovered.

The Meaning
God is a word that means different things to different people. What enters our minds when we think about God is considered to be the most important thing about us.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without him was not one thing made that has come into being.” (Gospel of John 1:1-3)

Characteristics

Wisdom
“Wisdom is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve these ends by the most perfect means.” (Dr. Fred R. Johnson, Ph.D.)

Infinitude
Infinitude impacts all of the others, and since God is infinite, everything else about Him must also be infinite.

Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the application of His other attributes of being all-knowing and all-powerful. Sovereignty makes Him absolutely free to do what He knows to be best.

Holiness
Holiness is what sets God apart from all other created beings, which is pure and righteous in all the universe.

Trinity
The Trinity consists of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all called God, given worship as God, exist eternally, and are involved in doing things only God could do.

Omniscience
Omniscience means all-knowing, which means God knows everything, and His knowledge is infinite.

Faithfulness
God’s Faithfulness guarantees everything that He has promised will come to pass. His faithfulness guarantees this fact, which has Jesus confirmed.

A Continuing Study

Love
Love simply means that God holds the well-being of others as His primary concern.

Omnipotence
Omnipotence means all-powerful, and since God is infinite and possesses power, He possesses infinite power.

Self-Existence
Self-Existence means God has no beginning or end; He just exists. Nothing else in all the universe is self-caused.

Self-Sufficiency
God is Self-Sufficient. He does not need our help with anything, but because of His grace and love, He allows us to be a part of advancing His plan on earth and being a blessing to others. We are the ones who change, but never God.

Justice
The Bible says that God is just, but it is His character that defines what being just really is. His justice is needed to be satisfied, but He took care of it for all who will believe in Jesus.

Immutability
It is why the Bible says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” This simply means that God never changes.

Mercy
“Mercy is the attribute of God which disposes Him to be actively compassionate.” Since God’s justice is satisfied in Jesus, He is free to show mercy to all those who have chosen to follow Him.

Eternal
God always has been and will forever be, because God dwells in eternity. It is why God can see the end from the beginning, and why He is never surprised by anything.

Goodness
Goodness is why He bestows all the blessing He does on His followers. God’s actions define what goodness is, and we can easily see it in the way Jesus related to the people around Him.

Gracious
God enjoys giving great gifts to those who love Him, even when they do not deserve it.  Jesus Christ is the channel through which His grace moves.

Omnipresence
Omnipresence means “always present.” Since God is infinite, His being knows no boundaries. This is certainly a comforting truth for all who follow Jesus.

The Conclusion
By learning the attributes of God, you may praise God for who He really is and for how each of His attributes impacts your life in a positive way.