Many view Christians and Christianity in general as judgmental, hateful, or just a bunch of nutcased individuals who mindlessly follow a ton of rules and regulations from a book written thousands of years ago. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus died because we could not keep God’s laws—the Ten Commandments. Those commandments were given as a guide for life because humankind proved unable to govern itself without guidance.
That same premise is intertwined in every part of our lives. Without traffic lights, drivers would never stop, yield, or even acknowledge one another on the road. In fact, for some people, traffic laws don’t even seem to matter. While everything and everyone follows rules, true freedom is found in Jesus.
This freedom does not come simply because you believe in a system or do many good things according to our standard of good. Instead, it comes from accepting what Jesus did on the cross and acknowledging Him as Lord and Savior. True Christianity produces conversion—change—hence the term “born again.” It does this by showing us our need for Jesus.
Along with change comes surrender—surrendering to God’s plan and will for our lives. This means life is no longer lived for what we want to do, but for what God wants for us. This is difficult for most of us because we have our own ideas, our own plans, and our own trajectory. To fully surrender means handing the reins of your life over to Jesus.
To many, this sounds cliché, controlling, manipulative—even cult-like. But surrender does not mean you stop living. It means that in your day-to-day life, you listen for God’s voice and direction.
In Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV), we read: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” That is powerful because it shows us that our lives are meant to have purpose. Whether that purpose is to be a doctor, an engineer, an artist, an entrepreneur, a stay-at-home mom, a pastor’s wife, or anything else, living in God’s purpose for your life is the point of existence.
His purpose wraps into His greater purpose for the world; it’s not simply about us in our little sphere of existence. You may think, “Well, I’m just a single mom,” but you may be the influence in that child who grows up to be the next Billy Graham. Do not underestimate your value or your purpose in Jesus.
I’ve wasted a lot of time in life because I haven’t done what God has wanted me to do. I’ve viewed His calling as insignificant—and as optional. But I’ve realized that sometimes the small and insignificant things in our minds are actually the hinge pin for the bigger things God wants to do.
Obeying in the small things requires discipline, structure, and time—all of which, if I’m honest, I haven’t wanted to give. I often think of God’s calling as something I can’t do because I can’t figure out how to make it work or how it fits into the bigger picture.
So what does it mean to be a Christian? For many of us, it means trying to fit God into our little box. We live our lives the way we want and proclaim that God understands. We think that because we read the Bible or simply pray—asking God to work through our laundry list of concerns—we are okay. But throughout the Bible, we see that God does not fit into a box, and He certainly is not a genie granting wishes all day.
We see that God challenges our ideology. He calls people to specific purposes, as stated earlier. He guides through hardship and intense difficulty. He calls us to live by a higher standard, obeying His laws. He deals with the root issues of our lives—selfishness, pride, lust, anger, and more. God calls us to consider others and to have compassion. Most of all, He calls us to proclaim Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) to a lost world.
Contrary to much of the world’s view, there is truth. There is a defined right way and wrong way, and it is not left up to us to define it.
Imagine you were building a bridge to connect two cities, and as an engineer, you decided to discard years of proven scientific principles—structural analysis, soil mechanics, load distribution, and material strength. You throw all of that away and decide to build it your own way, guided only by what you think might work. How do you think that bridge would hold up? It wouldn’t. You must follow established principles in construction.
Every part of life follows this same pattern. You’re not going to be a surgeon, a contractor, a technician, an insurance agent, a waiter, or even a student and simply do everything your own way without instruction. So how foolish is it to think we can approach God on our own terms and in our own way?
God calls us to repentance—acknowledging our need for Him, recognizing what He did on the cross, and turning from our sin (Romans 10:9–10). He did all the heavy lifting as He bore our sins on the cross.
So what does it mean to be a Christian? It means turning to Jesus, handing the reins of our lives over to His purpose, and making Him our single hope in life.