Life with God

Take God seriously when He calls you His child. You can come to Him as somebody who belongs.

Paul says God adopted us through Jesus because He loved us and wanted us. He gave believers His Spirit, brought us near, and made us members of His household. Those are things God has done for us. They're the starting point for how we live with Him.

That means thanking Him for what He's given you and asking for help with what you don't understand. You can enjoy something good without wondering whether you're supposed to be miserable to prove you're serious.

And you're part of a family. Other believers have things to teach you, and you've got something to give them. God's welcome gives us a place with Him and with each other.

Tell Him the truth in your own words. He cares about you, and you're welcome to ask for what you need.

John connects knowing we have eternal life with confidence in prayer. We can speak freely to God. We can ask for help with a decision, tell Him we're angry or confused, thank Him for something good, and pray for somebody who's having a hard time.

You don't have to talk like a preacher or make every sentence sound impressive. If all you've got is, 'God, I don't know what to do with this,' then you've got something to pray about.

John says God hears what we ask according to His will. We trust Him with the answer because we trust His goodness. A delayed answer, or an answer we didn't want, doesn't mean we failed to perform the prayer correctly. We can keep talking to our Father.

Spend time with what He said and did. The Gospels give you real things to learn about the person you're trusting.

Pick one Gospel and read it a little at a time. John says he wrote so people would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in His name. Mark shows Jesus meeting people, teaching, healing, and dealing with disciples who still have plenty to learn.

Read enough of a story or conversation to follow what's happening. Who's speaking? What's the problem? What does Jesus say or do about it? If a sentence puzzles you, the paragraphs around it may help. You don't have to make every line into an immediate instruction for yourself to learn something important.

Ask questions. Read with somebody who'll take them seriously. Paul tells Christians to let the word of Christ live richly among them as they teach one another. Learning belongs in the ordinary life of God's people, and there's room for you to be new at it.

Baptism is God's public testimony, through the church, that He has accepted you as His child. It's hugely important, because it's God's work, not ours.

At Cornelius's house, people heard the good news, believed, and received the Holy Spirit. Peter recognized that God had accepted them and called for them to be baptized. God's welcome gave their baptism its meaning.

That gives us a positive reason to be baptized. God has brought you into His family, and the church receives you as somebody who belongs to Him. This is something you can receive with gratitude and confidence in what Jesus has done.

If you believe in Jesus and haven't been baptized, talk to Christians who can help you understand it and arrange it. If your questions come from being taught that God rejects people who got the procedure wrong, That You May Know takes up that concern in more detail.

God's love teaches us how to treat people. Grace has plenty to do with an ordinary Tuesday.

In Colossians, Paul calls Christians God's chosen and dearly loved people. Then he tells them to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. He tells people who have been forgiven to forgive each other. What God's done for us gives us something to give.

A lot of that happens close to home. Listen to your wife. Treat your husband kindly. Encourage your kids. Be fair to somebody who works for you. Give somebody a hand. Admit it when you're wrong. These things matter because the people involved matter to God.

You don't have to wait for a special religious assignment to do something worthwhile. Paul says we're God's craftsmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10). There's plenty of opportunity in the life you already have.

You learn and grow as somebody Jesus has already taken hold of. You have His help, and people who've been at it longer can show you how.

Paul wanted to know Christ and become more like Him. He also said plainly that he hadn't arrived. His confidence in Jesus gave him a reason to keep going. Growth was part of the life Christ had given him.

Learning takes practice. Somebody who knows what he's doing shows you how, and you try it. That's how you learn generosity from a generous person, or how to apologize from somebody who can admit he's wrong.

God has a future for you beyond the things you're struggling with today. Paul looked forward to Jesus transforming our bodies to be like His risen body. The Savior who can do that has plenty of power to help you live with Him now.