Are You Walking with Christ?

When Christian "speak" becomes more important to you than Christian service, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When how you appear to others is more important to you than what you know God sees, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you keep commitments you make to teams, to your job, or to yourself, but you do not keep the commitment you made to worship with your brothers and sisters, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you expect others to meet your needs, but do nothing to learn of theirs, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you easily offend and are just as easily offended, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you readily see the sins of others and feel justified in yours because of theirs, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you claim to love Jesus, but care nothing for his bride, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you speak tritely of God's forgiveness, even while you refuse to forgive others, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you speak lightly of his grace, even while continuing in determined disobedience, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you claim to miss the people of God but feel no obligation to them, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you are more troubled by the speck in your brother's eye than the log in yours (and yes, you have one), you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you easily feel anger toward correction rather than brokenness over sin, you cannot be walking with Christ.

When you can easily live with conviction, denying it and ignoring it, until you have grown so accustomed to it that you hear its pleas and rebukes no longer, you cannot be walking with Christ.

But when the Holy Spirit so troubles you, humbles you, and breaks you, making your sin seem to you greater than that of the whole world, and you finally lay all your excuses, blame, self-righteousness and self-justification at the foot of the cross to receive and grant to others the forgiveness that only the broken can ever understand, leaving there your sin, self-centeredness, insufficiency, anger, bitterness, resentment, and disobedient spirit because it has no place in the presence of a Savior who was crucified for that sin--then you are beginning again to walk with Christ.

Today, more than life itself, I want to walk with Christ.