Doing life with God is absolutely the most amazing way of living life - hands down! By not living your life with God, you are not only missing out on all the amazing unexpected, surprising blessings and opportunities that God has for you - but you are also giving up everything God has for you when your life on earth is over.

Life on earth is short. For a lot of people, their tendency is to live the life that they have been given here on earth doing all the things that their heart's desire. This varies from person to person, but basically it is everything they think they want and will make them the most happy and fulfilled.

This is what the Bible says about living for yourself -

  • Living for yourself leads to loss.

    Jesus said in Matthew 16:25 says, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses

    his life for my sake will find it." Jesus makes it clear: clinging to self-centered living leads to

    spiritual death, but surrendering your life to Him brings true life.

  • Selfish living brings emptiness.

    The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, Solomon, who had everything - wealth, pleasure,

    accomplishments - concluded that living for self was "vanity and a chasing after the wind."

  • Living for yourself is slavery, not freedom.

    Romans 6:20-21 states "When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

    But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?

    The end of those things are death." Self-centered living feels free, but it's actually a trap.

  • The call is to deny yourself and follow Christ.

    "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me."

    The "cost" of following Jesus is giving up self-rule, but the reward is eternal life and real joy.

God calls us to give up living for ourselves - prioritizing how we want to do life - but not because He wants us to suddenly be left empty-handed in this life. It is because He wants to give us MORE - SO MUCH MORE than we can ever think, hope, dream or imagine.

The Bible says in Ephesians 3:20 -

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us".

This is a divine invitation. God's plans, goals and dreams for your life will not automatically come to pass in your life just because He created you. They will only come to pass when you decide you want to do life with God.

So, what does doing life with God look like?

Thankfully, the Bible has a lot to say about this. The first thing we need to do is look at the life of Jesus and the things He was sharing with everyone that He came in contact with. His message was clear - "Repent for the Kingdom of God is near."

What does the word repent mean?

  • Change of mind - a profound shift in thinking - a complete change of one's thoughts and attitudes, particularly concerning sin and righteousness.

  • Change of direction - "to return" or "to turn in an opposite direction - indicating a change in one's purpose and loyalty.

  • Turning from your sin to God - repentance involves actively turning away from sinful behaviors and turning to God for forgiveness and guidance.

  • Motivated by godly sorrow - regret for your choices, attitudes, words and actions that have offended God - leading to a sincere desire to live for God.

  • Repentance leads to action - repentance is not a one-time event but a transformative process that happens over time and produces the evidence of a changed life - demonstrated by a perseverance in following God's will.

  • Jesus said the 2 greatest commandment are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.

What repentance is not - it is not merely feeling sad or regret over past sinful actions and attitudes or admitting that you are guilty of sin in your life - it is a complete reversal from the way you live your life - turning away from your sin and to God, confessing your sin, asking God for forgiveness for your sin, and then simply telling God that you no longer want to live your life for yourself, but that you want to live your life for God.

You acknowledge the fact that you are a sinner. You tell God that you want to receive His gift of forgiveness of sin by putting your wholehearted trust in Jesus because He was sent by God the Father to die in your place and He took the penalty for your sin, which means when you put your trust in Him, God forgives your sin and you now have daily ongoing access to God by faith in Jesus.

Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

From this day forward, you choose every day to live your life for and with God - depending upon Him, seeking His will, His ideas, input, and His direction for your life. You daily surrender. You daily confess your sins, and ask for God's mercy and grace to help you live for Him.

You cannot do this in your own strength. It is a daily partnership with God through His Holy Spirit. When you humble yourself and depend on God, and have put your faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will come and live inside of you and lead you in the way that God wants you to go.

This, my friend, is the beginning of a beautiful life changing adventure! Does this mean your life will suddenly be easy, perfect or problem-free? No, it means that God will be with you in every season of your life when you live your life for Him, seeking to walk with Him daily. You will have His love, grace, peace, presence, strength, provision, forgiveness, and guidance every day.

The best part of walking with Him is that you will fulfill the plans He intends for you when He created you in your mother's womb. The Bible says in Psalms 139: 13-14, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

There is nothing more rewarding than accomplishing the plans God has for you - they are far better than anything you could ever dream up for yourself! God will invite you into all kinds of seasons of adventure and divine surprises and He will work all things in your life for good as you love Him and live every day with Him and for Him.

Friend, there is no better or more beautiful way to live than to live like this. And the wonderful thing about this offer from God is that it applies to you no matter how old or young you are - as long as you have breath in your lungs and are still alive on this earth, this invitation from God is being extended to you.

I would like to invite you today to take God up on His invitation - don't wait - start today! And if by chance you were living with and for God at an earlier time in our life and you found that you have drifted away from God into living your life independent from Him and for yourself, this invitation applies to you as well.

You can start again. You can repent - you can confess your sins to God, put your faith and trust in Jesus and tell God you want to come back to Him. Tell God you want to turn away from yourself and your sin, and turn to Him and to follow Him and His ways. He is standing ready to receive you into His kingdom with arms wide open!

So, what does this look like practically speaking?

  • #1. Pray from your heart sincerely about everything I just talked to you about - confessing, repenting, turning, asking for God's help - your prayer does not need to be fancy. It just needs to be sincere, honest, heartfelt and wholehearted.

  • #2. After you have prayed to begin this new relationship with God - expect God to start speaking to you. Speaking to you? Yes, God still speaks today and He speaks in many different ways. For starters though, the best and most reliable way God speaks to us is through His written word - the Bible.

    This book is not just a stale, boring historical book - it is life giving - it is alive - it is powerful and when you are reading it and leaning into God, and trusting Him in the process, the Holy Spirit will speak through the words on the pages of the Bible in ways that apply specifically to your life right now.

    The Bible is pure gold! Are there other ways that God can and does speak to you? Yes! But we will cover that at a different time. So if you don't have a Bible - get one you can read and understand. I would recommend the NASB, NLT or ESV versions. Once you have it, open up, pray before you start to read, asking God to lead you and guide you. God will meet you in profound ways in the pages of that book.

    There is no certain place you have to start. The New Testament starts with the 4 gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. These are four of Jesus' disciples that wrote historical accounts on the life and ministry of Jesu and the people that He encountered and the lives He changed when He was living on this earth.

    The disciples wrote the historical account of the life of Jesus from four different perspectives. Following the gospels are the book of Acts which talks about how the church started with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Following the book of Acts are many other books, many of them written by the apostle Paul as led by the Holy Spirit.

    If you start in the beginning of the Bible in Genesis, you will read the history of how God created the heavens and the earth, including mankind, and how human history unfolded over time. In the middle of the Bible, there are two books full of practical wisdom and encouragement about how to live your life. These two books are the book of Psalms and Proverbs. Whether I happen to feel God is leading me to read in the New Testament or Old Testament on any given day, I frequently feel led to read in Psalms and Proverbs in addition to other places in the Bible.

    Regardless of where you start reading in the Bible, you can be sure of this - God will meet you there! Doing this should become a regular part of your daily rhythm of life because it is one of the primary ways God will lead you, teach you, guide you, strengthen and encourage you, and keep you walking on His path of life. It is foolproof, error-free and reliable and you can fully trust the Word of God - the Bible. Lean into and treasure this priceless gift and your life will be so blessed!

  • #3 - Find a Bible believing church, and start going there regularly. Finding a Christian church community where your faith in God and Jesus can be nurtured, and where you can grow in your love for and knowledge of God is so important. It is also vital to be an active part of serving in that community - loving and giving to others as God pours into you.

    Make sure that the church that you commit to and begin attending regularly believes everything the Bible says is true, preaches from the Bible, and is a community that exalts Jesus, and where Jesus is believed in and trusted in, and where you can feel and experience the truth and goodness of God.

    If you are a new Christian, and you don't and don't know where to start going to church, reach out to a trusted Christian friend, who is also a believer in Jesus and the Bible, and ask them if they have any suggestions about where you might go. If you don't find a church after visiting one or two, do not be discouraged. Sometimes it takes a few times before you find a place that seems to resonate with you, and where you feel God is leading you to stay.

Okay, my friend! This is how you begin your adventure of a lifetime - living life every day with and for God! Remember, you can't do this in your own strength. You need to depend upon God's help every day - being led by His Holy Spirit and His Word.

God bless you my beautiful friend! I hope you will take God up on His offer today - don't wait - none of us know how long our lives on this earth will be, so don't postpone the most important decision of your life. you will be so grateful that you made this decision. It will literally be THE BEST decision you will ever make in your life bar none.

Love & Blessings to you, and may God richly bless you as you begin your new life in Him!

Disclaimer Note: Comfort & Joy Art classes on video are educational arts-in-health programs led by Jennifer Kilburn, artist, author and teacher. They are not a substitute for professional mental health care. If your child is in crisis or needs clinical support, please contact a licensed mental-health professional.