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Following God takes life changes
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If you truly desire to be close to God, you have to make some changes in your life. If you are like most people, you have been caught up with the “what’s in it for me” mentality.
This has to change, for the entire idea God has shown to man is “to love and to give.” Many miss this point and think about only what they can get out of religion.
If you truly are converted to the Lord, you have seen and are seeing a change in your life. No longer do you have the attitude of the man in the parable recorded in Luke 12. He spent all his time doing things for himself and left God out of the picture.
God asked him a question: “But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20, 21).
You are realizing that all blessings come from God and that you only are able to enjoy them for a season. Many people believe they do everything without help from anyone or anything; evidently they never have stopped to think about the air they breathe. God provides everything for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
Those who seek to please God are willing to give of themselves for God and their fellow man. They have come to realize what Jesus meant when he said, “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’” (Matt. 16:24-26).
No longer does self come first. Rather, God comes first, then others. They are willing to serve others instead of waiting to be served. They are willing give to God and others instead of seeing how much they can get. They are following in the steps of Jesus.
If you really want to follow God, you must spend time in his word, the Bible, for it is the directions left to man by God.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).
Wanting to be a follower implies the desire to do as God desires; therefore, you must go beyond just studying the word to obeying the word.
God has not left man to flounder about, looking for what he must do to please God. God has told us what we must do.
In the book of Acts when the law of Christ came into being, there are examples left for us. Those preachers taught their listeners to have faith in Jesus that he was the resurrected son of God, to turn or repent of their sins, to confess Jesus as the son of God and then to be baptized for the remission of their sins, to begin living for God faithfully.
This is the same message man must obey today. God has not changed, but we must change our lives and thoughts to be true followers of God.

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