Follow More Intentionally

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

─ Zephaniah 3:17 ESV

Follow More Intentionally

When we are brutally honest, too many of us as followers of Jesus Christ are unintentional in following Him. We’re unintentional in that if it’s convenient to be a follower of Christ, then we’ll be a follower of Christ.

The thinking goes something like:

• If what the Bible says makes sense to me, then I’ll do it …
• But if it doesn’t, then I’m going to make up my own mind about how I’m going to live.
• If I can see how something is going to turn out, then it’s easy to say I’m going to trust God …
• But if I can’t, then I’m going to do it myself.

So let’s think about being an Intentional Christian this way: without God’s call, we would have no faith in the first place. It is God in our midst. He alone waits to save us, to shower us with love and celebrate us. The fact that He draws us in is the only reason we are ever in a position to want to accept Him or to make Him a part of our life.

Without an intentional decision to live your faith, you would never experience growth. You will only be as spiritual in your life as you decide to be. There is nothing today that’s keeping you from being really turned on in your faith, and nothing that’s keeping you from being a true follower of Jesus Christ. It’s completely a decision, a commitment that you make.

• God does the calling.
• God does the saving.
• But you do the growing.
• He’s the one that does the wooing.
• But you decide if you’re going to submit and follow Him.

Three things we need to know about being an Intentional Christian:

1. We have to know enough to understand what God expects. That means we have to have some understanding of what the Bible teaches.
2. We should understand enough to know what we need to do. We want to answer the question: how does the Holy Spirit speaking in my life really translate into what I need to be doing in my life? God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit individually at times.
3. We need to do enough to experience growth in our lives. For if we don’t do something in being a follower of Christ, we’re never going to grow.

Today’s One Thing

Spiritual growth is a personal decision that says, “I choose to be an Intentional Christian and grow in my walk in Christ.” Will you make a commitment to know, understand and do enough to grow in Him?
Today’s One Thing

Give the gift of approval to your children and look for ways to demonstrate you believe in them each day.
Additional Reading

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