What’s a Girl to Do?

For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us; 1Jo 1:2

Being an effective Christian is not an easy task. As a Christian you are to represent Christ in all you do. As we all know Jesus was perfect, so representing him in the correct way I find to be sometimes impossible. I have found a couple of regiments to make our walk as Christians a lot easier.

We all know how the flesh works. The flesh is very selfish, and it wants what it wants, so the first step we should take in becoming a more effective Christian is to kill the flesh completely. This task I have found to be the most difficult. Killing the flesh is not something you can do once and be done. We must make this a daily chore in our walk with Christ. For instance, I am a smoker. For the last four years I have smoked at least a pack a day. Recently I have been praying for a closer relationship with the lord, so that he may use me as he sees fit. The first thing I had to do was quit smoking. Yes I had to be willing give myself fully to God and let go of my fleshly wants and desires, so that the Lord can use me and nothing will be in the way. I still have to make that choice daily not to pick up that pack of smokes, but it gets easier as my spirit grows stronger.
Church, yes you know that place your mom would drag you to on Sunday mornings. This is an important step in the process as well. Fellowship with other Christians, who are striving to do the same thing as you, actually does make your walk with the Lord a lot easier. If we are hanging out with people who are feeding the flesh daily how do we expect to stay strong. “Bad company corrupts good character.” These verses along with many others are put in the bible to warn us. To be successful we might even have to let go of some of our close friends. This is very sad but true. The Lord never said it would be easy he just said that it would be worth it. We need to take a step back and check out the people we hang out with and the places we go. This step is very important for our success rate.

Alone time with God, this can also be hard to do at times. Like most people I am lazy. When I get home after a long day, the last thing I want to do is set aside another twenty to thirty minutes out of my day to Pray and spend time in the word. I along with many others would rather watch television and then hit my very comfortable bed to get some shut eye. You will find that if you are diligent to take the time to spend with the Lord your walk becomes less of a struggle. This is because faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God. God did not just give us the bible to put it on a shelf to collect dust. When we spend time in his word our spirit grows stronger and soon will out rule the flesh; our walk will become easier.

I am not saying by any means that I am perfect, or by taking these steps we will become perfect. “For all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God.” We are not perfect we all fall and sin, but this is why out Lord Jesus Came, died, and rose again. If we are willing to sacrifice our wants and desires and practice these steps, this world and all the troubles that come along with it will not seem all that hard to deal with anymore. (Shannon Syfrett)