How does one live a radically God centered life?
Over past number of weeks I have been preaching through the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7). And has it ever been challenging me.
I have become convinced that Jesus is not giving us a bunch of rules we now must obey. Rather he is inviting us to live a new way, to relate to others in a new way. Jesus is not calling us to change a few things in our behavior. It is about becoming a totally different person.
I am a very selfish person. I discern everything from my perspective. The unconscious questions that affect what I do are: does this give me pleasure (then do it) or does this cause me pain (then avoid it). Even my moral behavior is filtered through these questions. I often behave morally because of deferred pleasure (which means I will get more pleasure later) not because I am not thinking about myself.
And Jesus invited me to move from having myself at the center of my life to having God and others at the center. So how do I do that?
It begins with confessing and praying (like Peter commented last week). After all this is a work of the Spirit not of me trying harder.
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