Following Christ

How important is it to completely follow Christ in everything we do as Christians? Isn’t it OK to be imperfect? We’re all humans and make mistakes after all.


Actually, it is extremely vital for us to follow hard after Christ. To be sold out to God is something we should all desire. Why?


One reason we need to diligently follow Jesus is because He gave us so much. He died for us, even though we could never deserve His sacrifice. We are disgustingly ungrateful if we accept His free gift and then keep on living and wallowing in our old sinful lifestyles without caring about the fact that we are breaking Jesus' heart.


We should desire nothing more than serving our Savior Who gave everything for us. We owe Him our lives, our all. He doesn’t require us to fully obey Him to keep our salvation--a good thing since all of us would fail miserably--but can we strive for anything less? Will we be satisfied with our half-hearted obedience? Or will we seek to follow Jesus--our perfect and best role model--more closely?


We must realize that following the world instead of Christ will have disastrous results. Why is it so harmful to us? Simply put, the world will lead us away from God if we aren't careful. As the Bible says, we cannot serve two masters. If we aren’t striving to follow Christ, it’s like we’re rejecting Him. He won’t forsake us or condemn us, but we certainly won’t be able to live fulfilled lives for His glory.


If we give in to sinful temptations, we will experience much defeat and failure. Sin can give pleasure, but it’s only artificial and temporary. It definitely won’t fill the emptiness in our lives. Only Jesus can do that, but He won’t be able to completely fill us if we are constantly blocking Him out of our lives.


There is yet another reason we must be very careful how we follow Christ. Guess what? People are watching us. We, as followers of Christ, have the responsibility to shine Christ’s light to the world. Other people will look to us for an example of Who Christ is. If we’re misrepresenting Him, they likely won’t be interested in accepting Christ as their Savior.


We don’t want to be hypocrites either. If we say we are Christians but aren’t following Christ as we should, others will think there is no good reason to be saved because Jesus doesn’t really change lives. What a tragedy! Yet it happens all too often. So many Christians don't seem to care. 


As you can see, it is far more important to truly follow Christ than most Christians think. But we have to realize it is impossible to do this alone. We can't. I can't. Only through Christ’s supernatural power can we ever hope to follow Him faithfully and wholeheartedly. And He wants to empower us if we're willing to let go and just let Him have control.


JPK