If you are a Christian, there was likely a time when you first realized that knowing Jesus should change how you live.  Jesus, after all, doesn’t just call us to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins but also to follow Him in obedience.  You can’t have one without the other.  He must be both Savior and Lord.

So, when that moment came, it is likely the life lived to that point was lived without regard to Jesus’ commands and desires. Bottom line…things needed to change.

The sequence of events usually goes like this.  Someone does not believe that they were guilty of sin and needed saving from anything.  Thus, this person has no desire of follow a God that they do not believe in.  This person gives no thought of what God would want as they go about in day-to-day decision-making.

Then, that person comes to realize that they are a sinner in need of God’s grace and that Jesus is the only possible Savior.  They put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and are forgiven of all past, current, and future sins.  Suddenly, there is remorse for past and current sin and a desire grows to respond to Jesus’ commands to please Him and grow in relationship to Him.  A life long (hopefully) pursuit of follow God has begun.

So…where to begin?  At this point in the discussion, we could simplify the Christian life as “do whatever God tells you to do”, but that may not be entirely helpful if there are areas in our life that we are ignorant of what God would desire.  Many times what God would desire is “hidden” from us because of past habits, what we were previously taught, or lack of bible knowledge.  From my own personal experience of turning to Christ when I was 20 years old, what I needed was to learn to worship Christ with my life and in every area of life.  Although this list is not meant to cover everything, here are some life areas that typically must be re-learned.  Areas that, as Christ followers, we may be learning to worship:

 Time

Before I was a Christian, I knew of no other way to decide what to do with my time other than doing what I wanted to do.  Sure, there were still jobs to be worked and responsibilities to be fulfilled, but most often, even those were done with the eye on what personal benefit I would get in the end.

As a Christian we are called to follow Christ’s example in serving one another. For me, that meant much less time spent on video games, hobbies, and being lazy in one form or another.  Over the years, my hunting time has decreased and the time spent serving my family has increased.  The time I spent watching my wife do housework decreased and the time spent helping has increased.  The time spent looking forward to using free time how I wanted to use it has decreased and the time spent fulfilling responsibilities in the church has increased.

 Money

Living in the United States is dangerous because of the temptation to live for material things.  An unbeliever’s future plans are supposed to be marked by desires of the American dream:  bigger and better house, shinier and faster car, or the latest and great clothes or electronics.  Christ confronts this conflict head on by stating that man “cannot serve both God and money.”  And by definition, this struggle between God and money includes the struggle between God and whatever money can buy.

Before I was a Christian, the idea of giving money to the local church or being generous just didn’t make fiscal sense.  How was a supposed to do what I wanted to do if the money was going elsewhere?  Now, I considering a necessity to give offerings and be generous in order to combat the still present desire to have the latest and greatest.  As Paul encouraged the Corinthian church, I also desire to grow in the grace of giving.

 Expressions of Worship

Growing up in a very conservative church environment, it was foreign to me when I saw a Christian praying out loud, being baptized as an adult, sharing thoughts about Christ outside of a church building and especially if someone decided to raise their hands during the music worship of the Sunday service.  I had no experiential grid for these things, so they initially seemed foreign or plain out weird.

The best explanation that I have heard to explain why singing loudly, praying out loud, or lifting hands in worship is not weird, but in fact normal, is the comparison of being moved to celebrate Christ and being moved to celebrate the latest athletic feat.  No one finds it odd when we stand and cheer when a pigskin gets moved across a white painted line.  Why the difference?  Only our experience of cheering on the Packers tells us that celebrating the latest touchdown is not odd, in fact, we celebrate the celebration by having Packers parties, talking about the latest game, or planning our days around the next telecast.  What is the difference with celebrating Christ?  The only difference for me what that I had never experienced and actually had never seen these expressions of worship for the King of Kings.  As we determine in our hearts and minds to allow the inward excitement and appreciation of Christ flow out of our lives in expressions of worship we begin to do things we’ve never done before.  And eventually, over time, these acts of worship that we found “weird” become natural.

It is my hope that we, as a church, would continue to grow and stretch our understanding of what it is to live a life of worship.

Now, I can be found leading singing and playing guitar at a gathering of Christians.  This would have been completely foreign to me in my high school years.  In fact, I may have even pointed at my modern day self and said I could never see myself doing something like that.

The new life that begins when faith begins is a life of learning to worship.  Whether it be how we spend our free time, what we do with our money, or how we express ourselves in worship of Christ, I pray that God helps us in our quest in learning how to worship.  I know my life of learning is far from over.  How about yours?