How, Then, Shall We Live? (Luke 22:31-38)

Our job in this life is to serve the Lord - Love Him, Obey Him

Practically, we should be telling others about Jesus, - the Gospel

We should be doing his will -  part of that if becoming familiar with His will.

That involves a life of reading His word - the clearest way to hear his voice, and we should be praying, talking to God. We cannot have much or a relationship without two way communication.

We need to love others. We do that by encouraging them, enjoying their company, and generally doing things that are beneficial to them.

We need to live holy lives. That means that we need to live lives that are different from the world at large. That might be the hardest part for us.

The world has so much to offer us, some of it is good. God gives us good things. He loves the world enough to give them good things. Not everyone is thankful for what they have, that is one of the things that should make us different, that we are thankful to our Source, to He who is our Provider.

We should be having fellowship with other believers, encouraging them, being encouraged by them, helping them, and being helped by them.

Hanging out with other people, alters our character, that is something we need to be careful about. We tend to imitate the behaviors of those we hang out with. We can be tempted to act like them, talk like them, and in general, do what they do.

For this reason, we should cultivate an awareness that as believers, Jesus is with us also. Before we act, before we speak, we should try to me mindful of Jesus' presence, and act like Him, more than we act like our friends. If we want to act like our friends, we should act like the ones who act the most like Jesus.

What to our friends say? Do they say spiritual things, or does filth and bitterness come out of their mouths?

What do we and they do for fun? Do we go bar hoping? Do we go to movies, that depict a lot of worldly behavior, or do we do things that we would do with Jesus as our guest? Do we eat to the glory of God, or do we pig out on junk food, valueing pleasure more than nutrition that shows that we care for the bodies we have, God's temple?

I am resolving to attemp to improve my life. Changing some of my habits, developing some new ones.

I'd like to hear some ideas that you have, in general terms or even in specific ways, on how we might improve ourselves (with God's help of course, without Him, we can do nothing). 

This need not be a confessional, and I do not suspect that everyone will be looking forward to admit their short commings, nor commit to improvements they may not keep. Rather, I hope to see people offering suggestions, and people recognizing some of the areas they could improve in their lives, and was all can join in in the atc of praying for each other, in our own time, our own hearts, and in our own ways, knowing that God hears our prayers, and grants them when they are in His will.