The Principles of Active Christianity

1. Make a Choice: Have you ever prayed and prayed that God would change your life, only to find yourself angry with God because nothing ever changes? If this is you, it is time to make a choice. God can and will do his part, but we have a role to play as well. Doing our part through the choices that we make is what active Christianity is all about.
2. Let Go of the Lies: The enemy has spent years lying to you about who you are. He has tried to convince you that you are worthless and unlovable. He has told you that anything that has ever happened to you in the past was your fault, and he’s tried to convince you that God will never forgive the wrong choices that you’ve made. It’s time that you start recognizing these thoughts for what they are: bold faced lies from the enemy; and time that you start believing the truth from God’s word about who you are in him.
3. Get Real With Yourself with God, and With Others: If you want to find healing from the hurts of the past, then you’ve got to start being truthful with yourself, with God, and with others. Quit pretending to be someone that you are not. Too many Christians are trying too hard to be who they believe God and others want them to be, instead of being honest about who they really are. Hurts covered over can never be healed. True healing begins when we allow ourselves to be real and transparent.
4. Quit Striving and Start Abiding: Have you ever found yourself totally frustrated because you are trying to live out your Christian walk in your own strength. Perhaps you’ve set up a whole list of standards that you have determined as a “good Christian” to live by, only to find yourself constantly falling short. If this describes you, then you may be suffering from the disease of striving. God is not looking for strivers. Striving leads only to cycles of failure and depression. God is looking for those who will abide in him at all times, focusing not on outcomes, but on the relationship. What about you? Where does your focus lie?
5. Learn How to Fall in Love With God: Do you truly love God? The obvious answer is of course I do; but let me put it another way. Are you in love with him, or do you just love being a Christian with all of its fringe benefits? Is it truly God that you love, or is it what he can do for you? These are hard questions to answer but before you try, I’d like you to consider one other thing. When you love someone, and I mean truly love him/her, you want to know everything about that person. He/she is on your mind constantly, and when you say good-bye at the end of time spent together, you can’t wait to be together once again. Can you say this about your relationship with God? If the answer is no, maybe it’s time to stop saying you love him, and start learning how to fall in love with him.
6. Spend Time With God on a Regular Basis: Is this an area of constant guilt in your life? You know that you should be spending time with God. You’ve been told that you should enjoy spending time with God, but not only do you not enjoy it; you never can seem to do it. You just don’t feel like it. What you need to remember is that spending time with God has nothing to do with your feelings. There will be many mornings that you don’t feel like spending time with God, but you will need to make the choice to do so, because spending time with God is all about priorities. If your relationship with God is a priority in your life, then time with him will also be a priority. We always make time for the things in our lives that are priorities.
7. Commit to Radical Obedience: In Deuteronomy 28:1 God commands us to fully obey the Lord and carefully follow all of his commands. He doesn’t command us to partially obey him or to follow the commands that we are comfortable with and that fit in with our lifestyles and personal beliefs; he makes it clear in this and many other places in scripture that nothing short of complete (radical) obedience is the standard by which we should be living our lives. Are you living your life by this standard or are there areas of unsurrender that you have tried to rationalize and justify away? Many of us want the blessings that God promises to his children, but what we often forget is that blessings follow obedience. Just look at Deuteronomy 28:2.
8. Live Life from an Eternal Perspective: How you ever longed for something more in life? All of us were born with an empty place in our hearts that is constantly crying out to be filled, and it seems the older we get, the louder the cry becomes. This place is called eternity, and it was placed in the heart of every man by God himself (See Ecclesiastes 3:11). This place was meant for the one and only eternal God, but too many people in today’s world are trying to fill it with other things. Are you one of those people? Have you tried to fill this place meant only for God with your career, a person, a hobby, money, possessions or something else? If you have, it is time you start to realize that nothing on this earth can ever satisfy. True joy, peace and fulfillment can only be found through a totally surrendered relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord.
9. Walk in Steadfastness: Are you a faithful friend to God? Although God will always be faithful to us no matter what (See 2 Timothy 2:13), he is looking for Christians who will be faithful to him day in and day out. Are you one of those or do you ride the roller coaster of Christianity? For a few days or even a few weeks everything is great in your relationship with God. You are reading the word, spending time with him, obedient to his word and focused on him. But then something goes wrong, and before you know it you have stopped doing all the things that you know you should be doing, and your eyes are off God and on the things of the world. The key to getting off of the roller coaster and walking in steadfastness is being prepared for the battle when the enemy attacks. Remember, a prepared Christian is a victorious Christian.