The Daily Grace - Make It Personal

Sometimes, we may enjoy interacting with other people, trying to guide them to a purposeful, Christlike life - characterized by love for God and love for others. Maybe our goal is to prepare them to live for God throughout life. That would happen only as they made their faith a vital part of life through the help of the Holy Spirit. Some may be floundered after they'll decide if to follow Christ or not. The reason will be because they left the influence of Christian mentors and parents.

This is demonstrated in the story of King Joash of Judah and his uncle Jehoiada. Jehoiada, a wise counselor, influenced Joash to live a God-honoring life (2 Chron. 24:11,14). The problem was that Joash did not embrace an honorable life as his own. After Jehoiada died, King Joash "left the house of the Lord" (2 Chron. 24:18). And, he began to worship in a pagan way. He turned and became so evil that he had Jehoiada's son murdered (2 Chron. 24:20-22).

Having someone in our lives to guide us toward faith and Christlikeness can be good and helpful. Even better is getting to know the Lord ourselves and learning to rely on the Holy Spirit to be our guide (Gal. 5:16). That is making our faith personal. The faith of others encourages; a faith of our own transforms.