How shall we live?

Over the past two Sundays, Brent preached two powerful sermons which should have made us all sit up and take notice. He spoke about how we were saved from our previous way of life and how we made a decision to follow Jesus and how we are now looking forward to eternal life with him.

But what about the time in between? How are we going to live our new life in the present, in the here and now when we have received such a gift of grace? So I went and read again Col 3:1-17 and together with it Matt 25:32-46, and asked myself 'What is God’s will for me in 2013?”

The question however, is not 'What is God’s will?' It is rather this 'will we obey God’s will?' The Bible tells us in so many places what God's will for us is. Jesus said 'whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake, will find it.' Jesus clearly acknowledged that following him involves taking lots of risks, but in the end leads to a great reward. This begs a question from each of us; do we believe the reward found in Jesus is worth the risk of following him? The changes in our lives will always increase in proportion to the depth of our relationship with Jesus.

We need to commit to believe whatever Jesus says in the scriptures but as importantly we need to commit to obey what we have heard (Jas 1:22-25).

The gospel does not merely prompt us to reflection. Instead the gospel calls us to respond.  In the process of hearing Jesus, we are compelled to take an honest look at our lives, our families, our church and not just ask “What is he saying?” but also “What shall I do?”

So, when we draw up our list of resolutions for 2013, let’s keep Sunday’s challenge in mind.

-Leon Huisamen