Walking With God For Life

1 John 1:3-2:2 (NIV) 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete. 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

1. Choose to seek fellowship with God daily.

Romans 5:1-2 (NIV) Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

My RELATIONSHIP to God

My FELLOWSHIP with God

John 3:20-21 (NRSV) “All who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light.”

Ephesians 5:8-11 (NCV) In the past you were full of darkness, but now you are full of light in the Lord. So live like children who belong to the light. Light brings every kind of goodness, right living, and truth. Try to learn what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the things done in the darkness, which are not worth anything.

2. Come clean with God quickly!

Psalm 32:5 (TLB) “There was a time when I wouldn’t admit what a sinner I was. But my dishonesty made me miserable and filled my days with frustration…until I finally admitted all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself ‘I will confess them to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.”

• Practicing “spiritual breathing” as needed.

3. Count on God’s awesome consistency.

1 John 3:19-20; 4:16 (NIV) This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything…So we know and rely on the love God has for us.

Ephesians 1:4-5 (TLB) Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault – we who stand before him covered with his love. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to!

Proverbs 14:26 (GNB) Reverence for the Lord gives confidence and security to a man and his family.

4. Conform to his faithful corrections.

5. Continue to take his path of life.

Proverbs 4:18-19 (NLT) The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like total darkness. They have no idea what they are stumbling over.

• Developing a “faith-rest life” in him.

Colossians 2:6-7 (TLB) Just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust him, too, for each day’s problems; live in vital union with him. Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all he has done.

The big question:

Will I take the next step with him?