Below are some areas of practical suggestions that help are meant to help you get to know Christ more and grow in your relationship with God daily. They take you to a page that has further information on this subject.
Remember, the goal is not to set up a list of "checklist" habits and then to feel justified because you are "now holy". That's a trap. You will NEVER be at a place where you are so good or so disciplined or so structured or so close to God that you do not need the FULL measure of HIS grace to sustain you.
These are just practical ways to help you to get to know Him, learn about Him, begin on the never-ending road of seeing more of who He is. As you spend time with Him, you'll develop more trust in what He says and as You do, God will stretch you with the directions and plans He has for your life and then lead you to new levels of commitment, as you learn about Him and as you learn about yourself and who He made you to be.
Ultimately, this life of following Christ is not about improving you, but it is about praising and honoring Him. That's very counter culture, but through, as the Bible says, "denying yourself, taking up your cross daily" (Luke 9:23) (your burden-your commitment) and following Christ passionately, somehow in this denial, God has the destination of a life that is more and better than your could possibly ever dream or imagine (John 10:10).
This is the by-product of a Christian life...it's not the goal. The goal is to search hard after God and seek to honor Him in everything you do. It is hard and it requires sacrifice, but there is no doubt to me, after 34 years of following Christ, that it is the BEST life I could have remotely experienced to this point. In fact, the toughest things in this journey for me have come from my own lack of understanding, and having to learn thing.
It's tough to explain. Many of God's concepts are turned upside down from our conventional wisdom that's been polluted by the sin in the world that we are exposed to, but somehow, in this denial of myself and my rights and my desires, in that setting aside of those things so I can pursue Christ, God leads me to the things that I was created to be, that satisfies me, holds me up, energizes me and gives me purpose in life like nothing else I've ever seen or experienced. But, as it says in Rick Warren's book The Purpose-Driven Life, you've got to get the concept that your life is not about "you", it's about Him.
Hope this stuff helps.
In Christ,
Jim
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