20 Times We Don’t Live Like Jesus

Millennials aren’t the only ones leaving the church. Everyone is; and I’m convinced this is because we’ve forgotten about Jesus.

In our cluttered and complicated daily life, it’s easy living like we know best—like we know exactly what to do to live the sort of life that we want. But the truth is, we weren’t designed to live without guidance. We were designed to follow an example—Jesus Christ—and the more we ignore this, the messier our lives become.

As a response to the noise of today, people forget about living like Jesus, and as a result, they leave their faith. A faith that doesn’t practically inform every area of life is sadly one depleted of relevance.

Fortunately for us, Jesus isn’t an antiquated or hyped-up character to our story. He is still relevant. Living like Him truly does improve every area of our life.

We just have to recognize the times we don’t live like Jesus and work to practically improve them. In doing this, we can live our faith in the way it was meant to be lived.

Here are some areas where Jesus is missing in our daily lives.

We don’t live like Jesus when:

• 1. Connection becomes a tweet or a status, a screen instead of a face.
• 2. Filling our souls means emptying our wallets.
• 3. We jump on the words that Mark Driscoll or any other controversial pastor speaks.
• 4. We abandon the joy of Sunday for the anxiety of Monday.
• 5. Going to church is like a shot of espresso to jolt your spiritual side awake after a long week.
• 6. We live in the future more than we do in the present.
• 7. We try to make ourselves look better.
• 8. Our goals become monsters we run away from rather than successes we achieve.
• 9. We have multitudes of friends that are consumers, not contributors, to our lives.
• 10. Our schedules are packed, our minds are stressed, and we move faster than we need to.
• 11. We spend a majority of our lives listening to others rather than becoming leaders ourselves.
• 12. We accumulate “stuff” that unnecessarily crowds our space and our thinking.
• 13. We struggle to stay focused on accomplishing our mission.
• 14. We live in the negativity of things rather than seeing the hope present.
• 15. Our to-do list is consistently the first item at the top of our mind.
• 16. We battle other Christians instead of showing them the love that covers over sin.
• 17. We spend more time choosing the filter for our Bible study Instagram picture instead of actually studying the Bible.
• 18. We let our cynicism remain stronger than our joy.
• 19. We are not concerned about our character and engaging in the disciplines to lead a more meaningful and impactful life.
• 20. We don’t let our beliefs inform our actions; instead, we compartmentalize our life.

It’s possible to live like Jesus, even in today’s noisy and cluttered culture. While our culture is pushing us to be more self-centered with our lives, it’s possible to move against the grain and live the selfless life of Jesus in everything we do.

Are you willing to make that leap?