Imitate Christ

I am so overwhelmed by the character of God that I am busting at the seems and don't know where to begin.  One thing I have been convicted on for several years is that so many Christians worry about the rights and wrongs of Christianity.  As many of us have learned, that is so difficult, and a lot of times, where we get into legalism.  I believe the solution to this problem is to simply strive to obey the command, "imitate Christ".  If our ultimate goal is to imitate Christ, then we will being doing the rights of Christianity without necessarily knowing it.

In my conviction on this topic, I strive to focus my life on knowing who Christ is.  I know I am far from ever achieving this, but I am trying.  There are so many reasons beyond this though that I think we should get to know Him.

• He is the one who created me, I want to know my creator
• He loves me, which allows me to love Him, which builds a desire to know Him intimately
• I want to please Him, therefore I need to know what pleases Him, in order for me to do it
• He loved me enough to die for me, I want to know who this man is who loves me that much

The list could go on.  Learning who Christ is, is such a refreshing time.  I find His character overwhelming in knowing I will never I will never achieve.  But as elementary as it may seem, I find myself asking "What would Jesus do?".  When I go to sit down for lunch, would He always go sit with his friends, or go get to know the freshman?  Would He skim read His homework and finish it just to finish it?  Would He love that person that is driving you crazy?  Would he exaggerate the truth?  The questions could go on and on.

This afternoon in my quiet time, I was focusing on His character and I am again flabbergasted.  I just can't believe this is who I get to love.  He is the one who loves me. He is the one who loved me enough to die for me.  That's my God!  

Being engaged and preparing for a wedding and marriage, romance is on my mind a lot.  God defines romance.  When Daniel and I were newly engaged, I was worrying about something (big surprise there, huh?) and he brought a good point out to me, "Becky, I want you to bring this to the author of our story."  WOW!  God, who is like the most romantic ever, wrote my love story. 

God's character is so beyond the human mind, and ashamedly, I got discouraged sometimes that I can't understand Him or grasp a certain verse about Him.  But I am thankful for the humans in my life who love me, and serve as a human example of God's love.  I so readily see my sinfulness and shortcomings, and then I see how forgiving Daniel is towards that and loves me.  I then take a step backwards and think about how much Daniel loves me, yet the Lord loves me a million times more.  So if Daniel can forgive me, can not my creator who loves me so much more forgive me too.  Don't get me wrong, I do not think for one moment I am deserving of either Daniel nor God's forgiveness, I am just unbelievable grateful.  I say this all out of thankfulness for the people God has placed in my life who help me better understand His character (through their imitating Christ).

My parents are another example.  Good granny, they had to raise me.  I am sure I have given them many stressful times in their life, yet they still love me, they still advise me, they still help me.

I know my thoughts are scattered.  I just want to draw your attention to the question, "if there was only one thing you could do with your life to make it count, what would it be?"  I have really been thinking about that for me, it is probably to imitate Christ.  I want to continue to fall more in love with Him, and make the conscious effort to get to know Him better, so that His character "rubs off on me".  He holds the highest of standards, but I want that for my life too.  

I have posted this video before, but I encourage you to watch it again.  This is MY GOD!