Living the Christian Life

"Whoever claims to live in Him, must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:6

We have only successfully acquired the art of living the Christian life when we have learned to apply the principles of biblical religion, and enjoy its help and comfort in our daily life.

It is easy to have daily devotions, to quote Bible promises, and to talk about the beauty of the Scriptures. But there are many who do these things, yet their religion utterly fails them in the very places and at the very times when it ought to be their strength!

All of us must go out from the sweet services of Sunday into a week of very real, commonplace life. We must mingle with people who are not angels! We must pass through experiences that will naturally worry and vex us. Those around us at times annoy and try us! We will meet many troubles and worries in ordinary week-day life. There are continual irritations and annoyances!

The problem is to live a real Christian life in the face of all these hindrances! How can we get through the tangled briers which grow along our path without having our hands and feet torn by them? How can we live sweetly amid the vexing and irritating things, and the multitude of little worries and frets which infest our way, and which we cannot evade?

It is not enough merely to 'get along any way we can', to drag to the close of each long, wearisome day, and happy when night comes to end the strife. Life should be a joy and not a burden. We should live victoriously, ever master of our experiences, and not tossed by them like a leaf on the dashing waves. Every earnest Christian wants to live a truly beautiful life, whatever the circumstances may be.

A little child, when asked 'what it was to be a Christian,' replied, "For me, to be a Christian is to live as Jesus would live--and behave as Jesus would behave--if He were a little girl and lived at our house."

No better definition of the Christian life could be given. Each one of us is to live just as Jesus would--if He were living out our little life in the midst of its actual environment, mingling with the same people with whom we must mingle, and exposed to the very annoyances, trials and provocations to which we are exposed. We want to live a life that will please God, and that bears witness to the genuineness of our faith and godliness.

"Leaving you an example--that you should follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:21

- J. R. Miller