What Are You Living For?

The "correct" answer should be God.  I mean it's the right thing to say and living for God is worth Christ dying for, right? Is it really what we live for, though? 

What about School? Guys? Friends?  Popularity?  Love?  Adventure?  Fashion?  

I can so easily get caught up in the motions of shopping and school and friends and clothes and totally forget about Jesus on any given day.  I hate to admit it, but it's happened to me before on many occasions.  When I have too much to do on my mental agenda, I keep pushing my time with Jesus to later….and later…and later….until it's too late and I'm either too tired to spend time in the Word, or I do and end up falling half asleep while reading.  Not too productive.  Definitely doesn't show who I'm living for.

The person (or thing) you are living for is often reflected in your thoughts, actions and words.  It may be a good idea to spend some time thinking about what's a priority in your mind or what you talk about when you're with your closest friend.  Is it Jesus or the newest movie you're talking about?  Is it Jesus or the new line at Coach for the fall?  Is it Jesus or the cute guy that sits behind you at class?  What is always on your mind? That'll give you a good idea of who or what you're living for.  

Although outwardly I totally thought I was living for Jesus, inwardly, I knew I wasn't.  In the past I have let all of these distractions take over me and I've begun to live for that.  Little by little it gets ahold of you and you're sucked in.  It becomes terribly hard to turn back.  Through the grace of Jesus, He picked me up and set me on the right path and I'm now walking that narrow road that leads to Him.  Although I do continually have slip-ups, God continues to pick me up and guide me in the way I should go.  I've never been as passionate for Him as I am now and I've never had His Word on my mind as much as I do now.  I'm definitely not perfect and there are maaaany times where I slip-up and can definitely improve in this area, but I feel confident that Jesus is guiding me and leading me closer and closer to Him.  I have no desire to return to how I was.  Ridiculous and boring as my life may seem, nothing fills me with more joy or gives me a greater purpose in life than seeing Him work in me and transform me into who He created me to be.   I Have Decided to Follow Jesus is a hymn I love.  It perfectly embodies my desire to follow Jesus.  I'm never turning back because I'm living for Him!

I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back

Let me ask this again…What are you really living for?