Living Lives Set Apart

Most of us know that God has called Christians to live lives set apart. He tells us to live in the world but not be of the world. I think many of us have forgotten that or maybe don't realize fully what that means. Statistics tend to back this up. Christians get divorced at the same rate as the rest of the world, they drink the same alcohol, they use the same language, they watch the same tv shows and movies, and share in the same gossip. We are living the same lives as the rest of the world. We are afraid to be different. We are afraid to stand out and possibly be labeled as weird or "holier than thou". We have bought into Satan's lie that it is a bad thing to be different than everyone else. The reason Satan wants us to believe that lie is because he knows that when Christians live lives set apart they become great witnesses for the cause of Christ. You are the only Bible that some people will ever read and if your words are written the same as theirs then they see no reason to turn to Jesus.

We often think that it is hard to live a life set apart for Christ, the Bible does say the path is narrow. I discovered these verses though as I was reading through proverbs and discovered that it's not as hard as we make it to be.
Proverbs 4:18 "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day."

The path may be narrow but it is shining brighter than the full light of day and easy to see. Just like the headlights of your car keep you on the street at night. God's path is full of light to keep you on it.

How do we stay on God's path? Proverbs 4:20-24 tells us.
" My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words 21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body. 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. 24 Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. 26 Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. 27 Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil "

We stay on the right path with lives set apart by:
1. reading God's word and heeding God's word ("My Son pay attention to what I say")
2. Keeping God's word on our mind constantly and memorizing it ("Do not let them -God's
words- out of your sight, keep them in your heart")
3. Guard your heart - keep out the garbage (ie. rated R movies, trashy television shows,
trashy music, bad interenet sites etc)
4. Keep your tongue in check - I think this is probably the most difficult and takes the most
diligence and prayer on our part to do. (No gossip- even if it is true- no foul language, no
yelling at spouse or children etc)
5. Keep your eyes on the path and the goal (The goal is to live Godly lives just like Christ - to
be Christlike) and do not swerve left or right (Consciously make decisions that will keep you
on the path- when you feel God's conviction that you are about to step over the line step
back)
Just like you make choice to keep your car on the road and you steer it on the path, you must do the same with your life. If you keep going in the ditch on the curve, that means you need to slow down and make deliberate actions to stay on the road. If you struggle constantly to stay on the path, pray for God to help you, because He will. One more thing worth mentioning is that the Christain life is not just getting rid of unwanted actions it is putting on Christlike actions. The next time we will take these same set of verses and discuss what we should put on while we take off the worldly actions.

Have a blessed day and drive safely!