Filling Your Emptiness -- Your New Life
Chapter 7
What Do You Do Next?
The next day, my life was perfect, without care, worry, or problem, right?
Wrong!
I had to go back to my regular life of work and school and family. I knew something was greatly different though, but I was rapidly becoming confused. Even my drinking, cursing friends noticed my difference.
I did not deny my difference, but also I could not explain it. I knew I was no longer the same person on the inside. It was like I had experienced a rebirth!
Jesus answered, “I assure you, everyone must be born again/born from above. Anyone who is not born again cannot be in God’s kingdom. (John 3:3 ERV)
When anyone belongs to Christ, they become a new person. Their old way of life has gone. Their new life has begun! All this is what God does for us. Because of what Christ has done, God has brought us back to himself as his friends. Now he wants us to bring other people to be his friends too. That is the job that he has given to us.
God’s message is this: “By Christ’s death, God was bringing people of the world back to himself, as his friends. He would no longer keep their sins in his thoughts” (2 Corinthians 5:17–19 ERV). That is the message that God wants us to tell people.
Then how do we learn to do this?
On the outside, I needed help and guidance. I could not break my old habits, addictions by myself.
As a newborn baby, we all begin our growth consuming simple but wholesome nourishment: milk. Solids and meats come later. We do not run before we practice and learn to crawl and toddle.
If you were motivated by an Olympic marathon medalist and wanted to emulate that success, you would not immediately enter a marathon. If so, you would fail miserably, be humiliated, and could suffer injury.
You would seek a trainer, a mentor to guide and pace you. Step-by-step you would learn the basics and adjust your life accordingly. Slowly, even with possible setbacks, you would achieve successes and rewards until it became a natural way of life for you. Then you should begin mentoring/discipling another interested person.
You need to break from one cycle and form a new, more rewarding cycle!
Your new life in Jesus Christ is the same. You first need proper perspective of your new life’s meaning and purpose.
God’s will and plan for your new lifeJesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” (John 10:10)
What must we do to gain this abundant life?
There are only two commands! These are the two new laws/commandments/guides God gave us:
This is the great and first commandment.
And he said, “You shall love the One and Only Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.And the second is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36–40)
To make God’s love fully effective in your life, do the following:
Stop sinning.
If I’m a Christian (saved) and keep sinning, will God turn away from me?
It’s true that sin puts up a barrier between us and God and cuts us off from the fellowship He wants us to have with Him. The Bible says, “But your iniquities [sins] have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). (Franklin Graham)
But that doesn’t mean God refuses to have anything to do with us. Don’t let sin come between you and God. God loves you, and Christ died to take away our sins.
When we do sin, however, we need to confess/admit it and seek God’s forgiveness at once.
Choose to practice his teachings for the rest of your life.
Teach me your way, O Lord; lead me in a straight path. (Psalm 27:11)
Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take. (Proverbs 3:6)
In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men. (Acts 24:16)
Pray (talk to God).
In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for Me in earnest, you will find Me when you seek Me. (Jeremiah 29:12, 13)
The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. (James 5:16)
If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask Him (talk to Him, pray), and He will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. (James 1:5)
Read and study the Bible
Jesus said, “If you abide (spend time) in My word (Bible), you are My disciples (believers) indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31–32)
His delight is in the Lord’s instruction (Bible), and he meditates (studies) on it day and night. (Psalm 1:2)
You shall meditate (study, think deeply) in it (the Bible) day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1:8)
Jesus replied: “If anyone loves Me he will cherish my word; my Father will love him and We will come to him and make him Ours.” (John 14:23–24)
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine (learning), for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
(2 Timothy 3:16–17)
Memorize the Bible
I will delight in your statutes (written instruction); I will not forget your word (memorize). (Psalm 119:6)
My son, be attentive to My words; incline your ear to My sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. (Proverbs 4:20–21)
Guard My words as your most precious possession. Write them down and also keep them deep within your heart. (Proverbs 7:2)
Learn the Bible together with other believers (God’s church) In the church, God has appointed...teachers. (1 Corinthians 12:28)
Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)
Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. (Philippians 3:17)
And let us not neglect our meeting together...but encourage one another. (Hebrews 10:25)
Fellowship with the believers (God’s church): Acts 2:42–47.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship together, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Tell others about Jesus Christ.
Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how He has had mercy on you. (Mark 5:19)
Therefore, go and make disciples (followers of Jesus) of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)
But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? (Romans 10:14)
Be baptized.
Note: Being baptized is not required to go to heaven, but it is a sign of obedience to God and a way of publicly declaring your decision to follow Christ.
By being baptized, we were buried with Christ into his death. Christ has been raised from the dead by the Father’s glory. And like Christ we also can live a new life. (Romans 6:4)
Then, go and make disciples (followers of Jesus) of all the nations (everyone), baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)
Demonstrate your faith in Jesus.
Your word (Bible scripture) is a lamp to guide my feet and a light (guide) for my path. (Psalm 119:105)
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what God’s Word says.
(James 1:22)
Do not be yoked (partnered, married, etc.) together with unbelievers.
Righteousness and wickedness have nothing in common and cause each other conflict (2 Corinthians 6:14).
God’s message and instructions for us were passed directly to his chosen messengers. This set of personalized messages and life instructions, as listed above, is the Bible. It is God’s “instruction manual.”
The more you study and practice, the greater your understanding and benefits; the less effort, the greater your lack of understanding, confusion, and failure.
As his instructions/stories illustrate, we need someone to walk alongside us to show us the way.
We, too, need to grow enough to walk alongside someone else in need.