There comes a time in your life when you realize that things have changed. Around you. In you. You sense that there must be more to life. You may have been attending different churches hoping to find one that fits, reading your Bible, and doing your best to live for Christ and yet there seems to be something lacking. That is when you felt it; a tug on your heart, mind, and spirit. It is just a breath of a feeling at first, but it grows into a need. You try to fill it with other things at first, but there is a hunger there that seems to grow.
At your very core you have begun to understand your need for a genuine relationship with your Creator, gaining a sense of God's ways and His plan. Through determined study of God's Word you will begin to see that He has given you a very detailed template on living for Him. Once you recognize and answer God's call, you must surrender completely to Him for His purpose, remaining faithful and believing in Him and the Bible as His Word. As a result, you will find yourself in obedience to God and His commandments. It's not work, it is loving Him. Welcome to life-changing faith! It is powered by trusting in God's love, goodness and wisdom so deeply that you are willing to follow His instructions even when you don't understand, or when obedience is not comfortable. It involves sacrifice and ongoing commitment in the midst of feeling afraid, experiencing trials and opposition from others. This is what it means to be part of God's family.
Speaking of uncomfortable, Satan will do his best to convince you to reject God's calling by taking it lightly. However authentic Christianity is not a hollow profession of faith without a corresponding change in lifestyle. That would turn the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, into a cheap pass allowing you to continue following Satan as the god of this world and yet still receive salvation from the one true Eternal God. Think about what an absurd mockery that is of God's gift of salvation! That kind of cheap grace is not okay with God. The price for your salvation was too high to become just a mockery. God calling requires a response. He wants you to abandon the empty pursuit of the immediate gratification offered by Satan so that you can have an unbelievably better life as one of His own. Allow Him to lead you in your study of His Word and you will find what He has to say to you. The Bible interprets itself and if you are not sure what a passage is saying in one context you can find it in another. Find a good concordance and Bible dictionary to compare and study. Study with prayer, asking God to give to you the understanding of His scriptures. Remember that there is not perfect translation of the Bible, as all translations contain errors and inadequacies, but God is never changing, Malachi 3:6, and James 1:17. Most importantly, think of your study as your food, it is that important! Be consistent and faithful. There is a whole new level of joy awaiting you!
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