What does it mean to be a follower of Christ?

It’s personal

I would class myself as a follower of Christ. For me, this means that I see the Bible as God’s inspired word and Jesus, as God’s son who died for me. Pretty big claims aren’t they? Well they have a pretty big impact on my life too.

I chose to be baptised when I was just about to turn 16. At this age most people will be worrying about exams, who’s dating who and what they’ll wear out at the weekend. I still thought about those things! I was just a normal teenage girl who happened to have a faith. My main focus was God and what was expected of me.

Having faith still has the same impact on me now as an adult. My free time is quite often spent doing things for my church community, or being with people from church. I have today, for example, spent the day at work, then come home and chosen to pick up my iPad and write an article.

Nobody is forcing me to do it, I don’t get paid to do it. I do it because it is important to me to share and focus on the most important part of my life. I organise Sunday school lessons for church, I choose the hymns I will play for our church service on a Sunday and I prepare food for those who come to speak at our church.

Two evenings a week are spent at church (one being where the focus is the youngsters) and quite often both a Saturday and Sunday are taken up with church. This is not a burden to me. Imagine if you had something you loved with all your heart, say it was art, or playing in a band. It would not seem strange to you that when not at work you spent all your time refining your art or filling your days making yourself better.

Priorities

I have missed many a night out with friends from work because there is something on at church. People often say to me ‘come on, you can miss it just this once’. No, I can’t. Once you walk away from the right choice once, it becomes easier and easier to walk away the next time.

‘No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other’

Matt 6v24

We, as followers of Christ, need to make Christ our focus and always choose to be with him to keep our faith alive. It’s hard enough in today’s busy, self focussed world to leave selfish cares behind and focus more on God and the way our lives should be lived. This is why as a community, we organise events throughout the year in order to stay in touch with each other and keep each other built up. We have a shared hope, a shared faith and spending time with each other keeps that alive.

We are encouraged to put God first in the Bible

‘But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you’

Matt 6v33

It’s simple really

If we have made the decision to follow Jesus and his ways, it should impact every aspect of life. Personally, it makes me think twice about most of the decisions in my life. I’m only human, so I often forget whose opinion I should be seeking about a new job, a parenting decision or how to spend my time and energy. However, I am quickly reminded that peace comes from a sure hope and I turn again to God.

Being a follower of Christ means that life is actually very simple and peaceful. We have a hope that should resonate to those around us and make them want to join our community of followers. Yes, it takes up a lot of my time when I’m not at work – perfectly understandable for something which is my life. I invite you to ask more about it.