Personal Narrative- Following God's Will

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Personal Narrative- Following God's Will

As James 2:26 tells us, faith without works is dead - part of living the Christian life is obeying God. God has given us many commands in His Word. Not only are there specific commands for all Christians, but God also promises to give Christians His Holy Spirit to guide us not only through various difficult experiences in our lives, but additionally in following God’s will.

God has commanded that everyone love Him first and foremost, above all things. He is our reason for living; only His Grace can and does save us from Hell. Second in importance to loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, is loving your neighbor as yourself. These two commandments, or “calls” are the ones to which I have failed to respond properly the most. I am constantly putting other things before God. Whether it’s because I get “too busy” or have “more important” things to do, putting other things before my relationship with God is wrong and I do it far too often. As far as loving my neighbor as myself, there’s no way I could say that. I have a hard enough time loving my own family as I should, let alone all the rest of the world.

Another command God has given to all Christians is to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15) Although I haven’t gone to any other country to share the gospel, I have done a few things to answer this call (but not nearly enough – there are hundreds of lost people I’m around every day of school to whom I rarely formally witness). I have attended SEMP (Students Equipped to Minister to Peers), where I learned about evangelizing, specifically, to my friends. In addition, we went out on the streets of Chicago a few days and witnessed...

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...guing Christianity these days. God has used the ability to write (that He gave me) and my skill with computers (which He also gave me – "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above" - James 1:17, including all our talents) to write the newsletter and to set up a web site for it, so God can use it to touch people throughout the world. All these things I’ve done for God are nothing compared to what He did for me. Without Him, I’d be as lost as any unbeliever out there. I have only accomplished these things because of God’s work in me, and I hope that all Christians remember that without God’s work in their lives, His Word is foolishness (Ephesians 1). As a “loud voice of a great multitude in heaven” in Revelation 19:1 says, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.” Praise be to God for what He has done and has yet to do in my life.

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