Which Should Come First?

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1).

I think the majority of people feel they need to get their life straighten out before they come to Christ. They figure they need to clean themselves up and then ask Christ into their lives. Therefore, they put it off. I don't agree.

"The key to the Christian life is not effort. It is union" [with the Lord] (Derek Prince, Declaring God's Word).

I think anytime we try to take care of things on our own we set ourselves up for failure. We need Christ in our lives first, and He'll help clean us up. The Holy Spirit takes up residence inside us, and becomes our guide. Christ becomes the strength we didn't have before. As we experience the joy of having Him in our lives, our wants and desires begin to shift from worldly things to spiritual things. As my husband sometimes says, "When you become a Christian, you can do anything you want to. God just changes your want-to's." 

"If we but yield ourselves entirely to the Spirit and let Him have His way with us, He will manifest the life of Christ within us" (Andrew Murray, Power in Prayer (kindle loc. 1948).

If you haven't accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, today is the day. If you have but haven't shared him with others, today is the day. I don't think the world would be in the mess it is today if we Christians had done our jobs of sharing Christ. Too often, we've selfishly kept Him to ourselves, and those of the world don't realize what they're missing.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Romans: 1:16a).

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