Q3. Christ Who Is Your Life

[Niyonka16]

Q3. (Colossians 3:2-4) To what degree is Christ the center, the focus of your life?

ANSWER: Jesus achieved perfect unity with the Father by submitting Himself, both body and spirit, to the will of the Father. His focus on the Father is one of the principal reasons Jesus’s ministry had such clarity and power. There was no distracting double-mindedness in Him. In the same way, you and I can put Christ at the center of our lives and become one with Him as He is one with the Father (see John 17:20-23). We could begin by stripping everything out of our lives and then putting it back together in priority order with the Savior at the center. We would first put in place the things that make it possible always to remember Him, frequent prayer, studying and pondering the scriptures, thoughtful study of apostolic teachings, weekly preparation to partake of the sacrament worthily, Sunday worship, recording and remembering what the Spirit and experience teach us about discipleship.

There may be other things that will come to your mind particularly suited to you at this point in your life. Once adequate time and means for these matters, for centering our lives in Christ, have been put in place, we can begin to add other responsibilities and things of value insofar as time and resources will permit, such as education, family responsibilities, and personal avocations. In this way the essential will not be crowded out of our lives by the merely good, and things of lesser value will take a lower priority or fall away altogether. Though it may not be easy, we can consistently press forward with faith in the Lord. I can attest that over time one’s desire and capacity to always remember and follow the Savior will grow. We should patiently work toward that end and pray always for the discernment and divine help we need (see 2 Nephi 32:9).

If you had to prove to another person that Christ is the center of your life, what evidence would you muster?

ANSWER: To make Jesus the center of my life?” It means to acknowledge Jesus as the ultimate authority in my life and voluntarily yield the control of my life to Him. For Jesus to be the center of my life, it means He is in control. I no longer desire to independently run my own life, but surrender my whole self to Jesus and to following His lead. You were designed for the purpose of knowing Jesus Christ and making Him the center of your life. First, Jesus created me and ultimately all things are under His rule, including me. Second, Jesus controls everything. Third, Jesus is faithful. Jesus can do a better job of running your life than you can, so let Him lead you each day.

In order to prove to another individual that Christ is the center of my life, I would make sure my Words would match my actions and attitudes making sure they are not hollow and meaningless. I would speak about my own experiences with the Lord, then I am a reliable source - a witness. I must strive to be an effective witness for Christ.

Below are four words that might help one mold their understanding of what a Christ-centered life looks like.

1. SOURCE: A Christ-centered life begins with realizing that the source of everything we are is the Lord. He created us, he owns us, he gifted us with talents, he authors our story, and every blessing that we receive comes from him (Genesis 1, Acts 17:26, James 1:17). Additionally, Christ is the source for our daily righteousness. We have no internal desire or moral ability to live up to biblical standards on our own, but in Christ, we have everything we need for godly living (2 Peter 1:3).
2. MOTIVE: A Christ-centered life means that a Person is the motivation for everything we think, say and do. Many of us leave little room for Christ in our Christianity. By that, I mean that our ability to "keep the law" or our pride in historic tradition is what defines our faith, not the person of Jesus. A Christ-centered life is deeply intimate and motivated by relationship.
3. 3. GOAL: A Christ-centered life has one ultimate goal: that Jesus gets the glory. It's not wrong to pursue personal goals, but the glory of Christ is the orienting compass that gives direction to all others. Because we want Christ to be known, honored, worshipped and obeyed, we submit every other attainable goal to him. Our decisions are no longer controlled by selfish desires, but by new desires we get from his love (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
4. 4. HOPE: A Christ-centered life finally puts all our eggs in the basket of the Lord. We know that this life is not all there is, and that an eternity is coming (1 Corinthians 15:19, Revelations 21:4). But a Christ-centered life is more than just a ticket out of hell. We have hope in the here and now, because Christ has promised his presence and grace until we go home.

What evidence would contradict this?

ANSWER: If we are not Christ-centered, we will be centered on something else.  Our lives would strive for supremacy, attention, and glory based upon performance. It keeps score and judges itself and others by self-made standards. Those who deeply desire a Christ-centered life will stumble, fall, sin, and make fleshly decisions in moments of weakness. But the real reason can be summarized in one word: pride. They want to run their own lives, and they don’t want anyone, especially God, to interfere with the way they’re living. They want to be in control of everything they do, and they know that if they were to believe in God, they’d have to change their lifestyle. Instead of living by their own list of what’s right and wrong, they’d have to take seriously God’s moral standards. It is all summed up the individual ends up living without any ultimate meaning in life.

What kind of repentance is necessary to reprioritize your life?

ANSWER: If we walk in the light, confessing our sins, we take possession of the most precious promises of the Gospel: that the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, will cleanse us from all sin. True repentance does not only acknowledge the sin that others bring into the light. Instead, it goes much further, dragging out into the light what no one else knows about. True repentance eagerly exposes all kinds of secrets from the depths of their souls and skeletons from the suppressed parts of their stories.

True Repentance:

1. Fears God’s Judgment;
2. Seeks to Gain God’s Pleasure; and
3. Seeks the Light More than Darkness

Truly repentant people confess sins that no one else could ever discover simply because they have a keen awareness that God already knows. Ultimately, true repentance is the only right response to the perfect knowledge of a holy God.