Posted on 06/01/2017 8:35:26 AM PDT by metmom
Whether we are playing a game, driving a car, or baking a cake, there are certain rules that must be followed for our safety as well as our success.
The Bible teaches that the Christian life is one of constant growth. When you were born again, you were born into God’s family. It is God’s purpose that you will grow into fill stature and become mature in Christ. It would be against the law of God and nature if you were to remain a baby and thus become a spiritual dwarf. In 2 Peter 3:18, the Bible says that we are to grow. It implies steady development, constant enlargement, increasing wisdom.
For one to grow properly certain rules must be observed for good spiritual health.
1) Read your Bible daily. Do not be content to skim through a chapter merely to satisfy your conscience. Hide the Word of God in your heart. It comforts, guides, corrects, encourages – all we need is there.
2) Learn the secret of prayer. Prayer is communicating. Every prayer that you pray will be answered. Sometimes that answer may be “Yes” and sometimes “No,” and sometimes it is “Wait,” but nevertheless it will be answered.
3) Rely constantly on the Holy Spirit. We know that the Holy Spirit prays for us (Romans 8), and what a comfort that should be to the weakest of us. Stand aside and let Him take over all the choices and decisions of your life.
4) Attend church regularly. The visible church is Christ’s organization upon earth. Christians need one another, we need to gather together to worship God and nothing can take the place of church attendance.
5) Be a witnessing Christian. We witness in two ways: by life and by word – and the two, where possible, should go hand in hand.
6) Let love be the ruling principle of your life. Jesus said to those who followed Him, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:25). The greatest demonstration of the fact that we are Christians is that we love one another.
7) Be an obedient Christian. Let Christ have first place in all the choices of your life.
8) Learn how to meet temptation. Temptation is not sin. It is yielding that is sin. Let Christ through the Holy Spirit do the fighting for you.
9) Be a wholesome Christian. Our lives and appearance should commend the Gospel and make it attractive to others.
10) Live above your circumstances. Don’t let your circumstances get you down. Learn to live graciously within them, realizing the Lord Himself is with you.
Guidelines for Christian Living is excerpted from “Peace with God” by Billy Graham, published in 1953, revised and expanded in 1984.
Ping
Great rules.
Follow these rules, and you’ll never be bitter, angry, resentful, unhappy or fed up with life.
Maybe some times when these trials will come. But they never stay.
Not an easy way of life. Submitting to the will of the Lord in ALL things is the most difficult part. It takes much practice. My ‘batting average’ in this aspect, is like that of a pitcher. Prayer and regular Bible reading should help raise my ‘batting average’....
The flesh is strong.
It’s my biggest struggle in my walk with Christ.
I find that staying in the word a lot on a daily basis makes a HUGE difference.
If I miss a day or two, I can tell. And there’s always that lag time. The effects are not immediate but usually show up after a couple days.
” In 2 Peter 3:18, the Bible says that we are to grow. It implies steady development, constant enlargement, increasing wisdom.”
a)steady development
b)constant enlargement
c)increasing wisdom
by studying the works of men? no by attending to His Word. amen.
I confess, #6 is a struggle for me.
Home run. Thank you. God bless you and your family.
That and being in fellowship. I can tell those Sundays I miss.
Excellent article. Thank you for sharing.
*
Only ONE is a struggle for you?
I didn’t find any that weren’t.
You’re REALLY spiritual then.
I agree...i have been lately trying to do the right thing at work and it has not been working out for me. I am trying to not be bitter and just accept it as worldly things.....it’s trying at times.
Phillipians 3:12-15 “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.”
Thank you for re-posting this metmom, we all need help in pressing on.
Maybe someone can pick the thread up after it drops to the bottom again.
gW
Great verses from Philippians.
Thanks for posting it.
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