I have found it challenging to define what it looks like daily, to live as a Christian. Perhaps that’s because being a believer in Jesus Christ is not something I do, but rather it’s who I am. Who I am does however, directly affect what I do. Being a Christian doesn’t simply dictate how I spend the first few hours of my Sunday morning, rather the good news of the gospel affects every aspect of my life. As a believer in Jesus Christ I do not reluctantly follow a set of rules or try to check off all the boxes to earn God’s favor. I serve and obey a God who loved me first. Obedience to God is how I show God I love him.

When talking about how Gospel doctrine creates Gospel culture, I love what Ray Ortlund says:

“That message (the gospel) does not hang in mid-air as an abstraction. It is not merely a concept. That message becomes embodied in us. We not only believe it. We not only receive it. We start to look like it.”

In other words, “this is so much more than saying you believe in Jesus or that you try to live a moral life. Walking in the truth, or living in truth revealed in Jesus Christ affects everything: our attitudes, flavor of conversations, sexual behavior, use of money and time, tone of our voices, what we watch and listen to, the words we speak. Truth lays down the path on which God calls us to walk.” (Kelly Minter, What Love Is)

When we choose to live gospel-centered lives, we stand out. We look starkly different than the world does (at least we should). I have noticed a pattern in my life. When I spend more time with Jesus, reading His word and conversing with Him, the more I start to think, talk and act like him. The less time I spend with Him, the more I start to resemble the world in my thoughts, words and actions.

To daily live the Christian life means to live intentionally. A gospel-centered life does not just happen accidentally. We are purposeful in how we choose to live. When we make a decision, we ask ourselves how can we honor God in this area of our life, how can we become more like Jesus and point people to him. We can easily fall into our daily rhythms of life without giving it much thought. There is certainly a need to avoid legalism – a dangerous territory of adding things to God’s word and leaving little room for grace and freedom in Christ. However, our family makes decisions intentionally and with conviction because we want to represent Christ and point people to him in every aspect of our lives. We are certainly going to fall short but we try to be wise with our choices and decisions.

Giving God the first fruits with our finances and holding on to our possessions lightly so we can be generous givers are important to us.

We want to shine for Jesus in our workplaces by working hard, having a good attitude, not joining in on the gossip or slandering others.

We evaluate whether or not our sources of entertainment please God. We try to be careful to guard our hearts and minds.

We have precious little time so we try to make the most of it and invest it well.

As a parent, my time with my children is limited. If my boys live under my roof for 18 years, that’s 936 weeks. Or 6,552 days. How do I make sure that I am maximizing these days that I have a primary influence on my kids to disciple them? I have to be intentional about deciding when, how and where to pour the gospel into my children. Discipleship happens on purpose.

One area where I’m trying to be intentional, is when we are in the car. I am no where near perfect in being consistent with this but I have identified this as an important time with my kids. Car rides can be a time of mindless chatter by my six year old who seems to talk just to hear himself talk. Or I can turn the ten minutes we have on the way to school and back each day into a time of singing the memory verse we are working on. Or working through some catechisms. Or if I need to let my boy talk, I can ask him more pointed and specific questions about the gospel and let him talk it out. I often use this as a time to pray aloud with and for my kids. I don’t dictate every minute of every day and I don’t want to be overbearing, but being strategic and meaningful with our lives matters.

Living each day as a Christian should mean that the good news of Jesus Christ has penetrated our lives to the core and it naturally affects everything we say and do.