{"id":1191,"date":"2014-10-20T06:30:22","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T06:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/?p=1191"},"modified":"2014-10-09T19:27:24","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T19:27:24","slug":"practical-christianity-tangible-things-we-can-do-to-live-our-faith-part-1-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2014\/10\/practical-christianity-tangible-things-we-can-do-to-live-our-faith-part-1-of-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Practical Christianity: Tangible Things We Can Do to Live Our Faith (Part 1 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Several times, I have had people write, or say to me,<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to live my life for Christ, but I don&#8217;t know how. It seems too difficult.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It is, and it isn&#8217;t, and at base, living for Christ involves living, minute by minute, doing the things that are put before us.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1192\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1192\" style=\"width: 430px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stevehendersonfineart.com\/works\/872926\/eyrie-wins-jurors-award-at-the-6th-annual-paint-the-parks-national-exhibition\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1192\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/362\/2014\/10\/Eyrie_watermark_SteveHenderson-300x248.jpg\" alt=\"eyrie inspirational oil painting of woman at grand canyon national park looking into sunrise by Steve Henderson\" width=\"430\" height=\"356\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1192\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Loving God is a joyful thing, because He loves us first. Eyrie, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed print at Great Big Canvas, iCanvasART, Framed Canvas Art, and Vision Art Galleries<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The next three installments of Commonsense Christianity will address three practical, tangible things we can do to live our faith &#8212; and they&#8217;re not all inclusive. The Bible is filled with practical application to living, but let&#8217;s just start with three, and today, we&#8217;ll focus on\u00a0number one &#8212; literally, number one &#8212; the most important commandment of all:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0(Deuteronomy 6:5)<\/p>\n<p>In the Bible, when something is repeated on a regular basis, it&#8217;s generally because it&#8217;s important, and this statement is made\u00a0by Jesus, who adds\u00a0<em>&#8220;with all your mind,&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0in Luke 10:27, Matthew 22:37, and Mark 12:30.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s apply this practically:<\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0<strong>&#8220;With all your mind,&#8221; implies thinking, and the more we think about God, the more He is in our mind.<\/strong>\u00a0Control and discipline your thoughts &#8212; when you&#8217;re tempted to worry, envy your neighbor, gossip in your head, or conduct mental conversations with your boss in which you systematically slash his ego to ribbons &#8212; think about God instead.<\/p>\n<p>2)\u00a0<strong>It&#8217;s easier to think about God the more you know about Him.<\/strong>\u00a0Pick up the Bible and start reading &#8212; somewhere, anywhere &#8212; and recognize that every word in this book gives you information\u00a0about God. The more you read, the more knowledge\u00a0you glean. The more knowledge you have, the more you have to draw upon for thought.<\/p>\n<p>3)\u00a0<strong>As you think more on God, be open to what you can do for Him involving your strength, resources, money, talents, and skills.<\/strong>\u00a0These don&#8217;t have to be big, impressive tasks. Simply smiling at someone you pass in the grocery aisles, or opening the door for another person, works. Start small, and be open to more as it happens.<\/p>\n<p>4)\u00a0<strong>Don&#8217;t worry about if you &#8220;love God enough.&#8221;<\/strong>\u00a0He loves us first, and as we accept that love, ponder it, wonder at it, He gently teaches us how to love Him back. We are children, and in the same way\u00a0wise adults are patient with little ones, our gracious Father is the wisest adult of all.<\/p>\n<p>5)\u00a0<strong>Ask God to help you.<\/strong>\u00a0Great men, and women, throughout the Bible have relied upon God for the big, and little things, in their lives. Fulfilling this commandment is no small thing, and we can&#8217;t do it on our own. But when we ask Him, &#8220;Show me what this means &#8212; literally, and spiritually &#8212; guide me,&#8221; He is faithful to answer.<\/p>\n<p>If this seems too simple, it is, and it isn&#8217;t &#8212; in the same way that young children don&#8217;t start out running, neither do we. We start out small, our hands in the hand of a big God, and learn incrementally.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Thank You<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thank you for joining me at Commonsense Christianity, where I encourage Christians to seek the God of love, mercy, grace, peace, and joy.<\/p>\n<p>Posts similar to this one are<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"christian misfits you have a beautiful face\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2014\/09\/christian-misfits-you-have-a-beautiful-face.html\" target=\"_blank\">Christian Misfits: You Have a Beautiful Face<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"child of god you are much beloved\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2014\/03\/child-of-god-you-are-much-beloved.html\" target=\"_blank\">Child of God: You Are Much Beloved<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Christianity is simpler than you think\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2013\/12\/christianity-is-simpler-than-you-think.html\" target=\"_blank\">Christianity Is Simpler Than You Think<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several times, I have had people write, or say to me, &#8220;I want to live my life for Christ, but I don&#8217;t know how. It seems too difficult.&#8221; It is, and it isn&#8217;t, and at base, living for Christ involves living, minute by minute, doing the things that are put before us. The next three&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":561,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,88,5,13,2,10,11,58,3,15,9,4,8],"tags":[1267,1644,1643,103,305,1264,73,26,1266,62,203,283,1265,450,345],"class_list":["post-1191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-bible","category-christianity","category-encouragement","category-faith","category-family","category-home","category-hope-2","category-inspiration","category-lifestyle","category-love","category-prayer","category-spiritual-growth","tag-application","tag-bible","tag-children","tag-christianity-2","tag-commonsense","tag-eyrie","tag-faith-2","tag-god","tag-great-commandment","tag-jesus","tag-love-2","tag-mind","tag-practical","tag-thoughts","tag-word"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Practical Christianity: Tangible Things We Can Do to Live Our Faith (Part 1 of 3)  - Commonsense Christianity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2014\/10\/practical-christianity-tangible-things-we-can-do-to-live-our-faith-part-1-of-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Practical Christianity: Tangible Things We Can Do to Live Our Faith (Part 1 of 3)  - Commonsense Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Several times, I have had people write, or say to me, &#8220;I want to live my life for Christ, but I don&#8217;t know how. 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The next three&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2014\/10\/practical-christianity-tangible-things-we-can-do-to-live-our-faith-part-1-of-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commonsense Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-20T06:30:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-09T19:27:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/files\/2014\/10\/Eyrie_watermark_SteveHenderson-300x248.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carolyn Henderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Practical Christianity: Tangible Things We Can Do to Live Our Faith (Part 1 of 3)  - Commonsense Christianity","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2014\/10\/practical-christianity-tangible-things-we-can-do-to-live-our-faith-part-1-of-3.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Practical Christianity: Tangible Things We Can Do to Live Our Faith (Part 1 of 3)  - Commonsense Christianity","og_description":"Several times, I have had people write, or say to me, &#8220;I want to live my life for Christ, but I don&#8217;t know how. 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