BrianShelledy.com

Being a Good Christian

I have not always been what many people would consider a ”good Christian”.  I have spent long stretches of time where I didn’t go to church, I haven’t read as much of the bible as I should have, and I’ve given myself over to sin more times then I could count.  I still believed that I was a Christian, but I sure didn’t think that I was a very good one.  I was a ”bad Christian” by my own understanding.  I believed that God sent Jesus to die for us, and I believe that He conquered death and promises us the same resurrection if we only will follow him.  I believed all of that, but I wasn’t being a very good follower. 

I wanted to make myself better, I wanted to change the way I was.  I knew that the status of my spiritual walk was hurting me, and those around me who cared.  I was wanting to change; but change takes time.  I thought that as long as I wanted to change, over time I would; in reality I was making an excuse for myself for why I wasn’t getting anywhere.  Probably one of my greatest stumbling blocks is procrastination.  Why do something now when you can put it off til tomorrow? 

The truth is, as humans, it does take time for us to change.  We have to expend considerable of time and energy to instill in our lives good habits; even more to break ourselves of old ones.  When we want to educate ourselves on something new, we have to start from the beginning and work our way through the material over time.  However, there is good news.

God doesn’t want to change us, he wants to transform us.  Transformation is something that we can’t really do on our own.  We can try and change ourselves to match the transformation, but it will take time, and we won’t get it perfect like God will.  God is the instigator behind transformation, and if we will let him come in and have free reign over our lives, then he can transform our hearts instantly.  We may still have habits that are not good, or some struggles that remain, but there is a key difference after we go through this transformation.  First, instead of trying to push one part of our lives up, the transformed part of our life is pulling up on the parts that are left behind.  Second, while it’s not any easier to pull then push on our own, we now have a powerful ally in the strength of the Lord.  In fact, as long as we give the work over to Him, He will pull for us.  The trick is to let go of the rope and let Him do His work in us. 

One thing I did have to change for this to happen though, was to change the way that I was thinking of myself.  I had to give up the idea that I was a “bad Christian” and realize I was just a Christian, struggling along as much as anyone else.  There’s no room for us to judge others, and probably no room to judge ourselves.

We are all in this together.   We’re all holding onto ropes and trying to do all the work ourselves.  In that light, we should encourage each other to let go of what’s left, but also encourage them because they have already come so far in being a believer.  Because the truth is that we will not be the ones to transform people, that is what God is for.  However, we can encourage people to believe that they are not bad Christians, but that we are all Christians together; we all have struggles, even the “good Christians” among us.  Rather then passing judgement, let’s be a force of encouragement that will help people open themselves up to the Transformational power of Christ. 

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