Commitment and Sacrifice.

Being a Christian involves a lot of commitment and sacrifice. Accepting Jesus into your heart is one of the biggest commitments you could possibly make, as I've stated before, but with that is sacrifice and greater commitment attached. Not the bad kind of attached, where you have to lug it around with you, but the sort that is always on your mind. Like, every Tuesday my wonderful friends, fellow peers, and a teacher gives up their lunch break so we can all come together in prayer. Now, we all know how crazy highschool is and to be able to give up an hour of socializing or doing homework so we can come together in the presence of God, now that is both sacrifice and commitment. When you're in highschool sometimes you may feel alone but you know you're not alone. Not only do you have God but everyone else is most likely feeling the same way you do.

Christians make sacrifices a lot and there are a lot of different kinds of sacrifice these days. Whether it be your social status, because people don't like your strong passion for Jesus Christ (Witnessing Opps! ;) ). Whether it be some TV time, because you have a little Bible study, or an hour lost of sleep so you can start your day off by being filled with the love of God from reading your Bible, or whether it be giving up a lunch for Prayer Group. But sometimes what we don't see is that these losses are ACTUALLY gains in disguise. By reading your Bible for even an hour extra a day, you get filled with the knowledge coming from the Bible as well as being built up so when you go through your day, it's like you have a shield over you, not letting anyone or anything get you down. Also, by losing out on friends who weren't really your friends you could either tell them about the Love of God, witnessing to them, or find friends who also have that passion for Jesus. But really, the first option I would think is a way better choice.

And honestly, being able to pray at school is great! During lunch you go into this classroom upset or hurt, and you come out of it just feeling good and better about yourself because you've just spent the past hour building yourself up, therefore you can go into your last blocks of the day just feeling great and loving everyone around you, as God does.

Now, Commitment. Like I said, accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour is the number one commitment. But there is also a lot of commitment that follows after it. Like, committing to reading your Bible every morning, or committing to going to Prayer group, just committing to Jesus. He died for US you guys, and the way people openly bash Him in public these days is both disgraceful and disheartening. It's disrespectful and it isn't right. He was so selfless as to bare the sins of the entire human race upon Himself and this is how people treat Him? Commitment is a big thing, even as a Christian it's hard to commit sometimes. I remember this one time, it was during just after summer when for the entire two months almost, I had been sleeping in until 10 or so. But for some reason I was woken up earlier, say... 6am or so. And I believe it was God waking me up and telling me "Kat, read your Bible." And I didn't. I feel bad now, but what's done is done and God has forgiven me.

But as the hour passed and I woke up at my regular school day time, and went on through the day I thought, 'What could I have learned and applied to my day? What could I have read that would have changed the course of my day?' And that's something I'm not going to risk losing anymore. When I feel the urge to read my Bible I will. The Bible is somewhat like a complex and colorful painting. You look at it once and you see something cool, and when you come back to it, every single time you see something new and exciting. Which is like the Bible, some of the scriptures have different meanings for different people but every time you go to a scripture, whether it be the same one or a new one, it's like God's telling you something every time you read it.

So, as a Christian I am encouraging you all as well as myself that everyday I will stay committed to the things I said I would do, whether it have to do with God, or daily things. And make sacrifices! It's okay to make sacrifices for God, I'm sure that's what He wants, to know that He is our top priority, because let me tell you, He's number one on my list.

God sacrificed his One and Only Son so that we might be saved and living our life all for Him. So ask yourself this;

What are you sacrificing for our God and what are you committing to?

Torch.