Recently I was talking with a friend as he was wrestling with some decisions in his life as a Christ-follower and it reminded me of some good council I once received:

1. Pursue Holiness: Our holiness only comes through faith in Jesus Christ and because of that relationship we get to walk in holiness. Although this sounds like a really big religious word for people who shave their head and go by names like “Guru Joe” it really just means we are set apart to live for His glory and His purposes. Pursuing holiness simply means to repent of our sin and run to Jesus. We will deceive ourselves with thoughts like, “I have been working really hard, I deserve it, it isn’t that big of deal, some people do a lot worse, nobody will ever find out”, and instead of making excuses for sin we would do better to run from sin, run to Jesus, and repent.

2. Read the Bible and do what it says. Sounds simple enough but it is easy for our hearts and mind to drift from Scripture. We can be stubborn and rely on our own strength and our own ability, but if we are allowing Scripture to touch our heart it will make a difference.

3. Open your life. It is easy to be private. We tell ourselves other people won’t understand. We don’t want to look stupid. We are suppose to be leaders. What will people think. Those are all thoughts that keep us from opening our life to other people. We would do better to open up our life so that people can speak into it and sometimes tell us things we don’t want to hear.