How to live set apart

It is time to stop accepting a watered down gospel. Largely speaking, there are of course exceptions, but as a whole, here in America, the gospel has been painfully watered down. The deception is high and people do not realize they are following a watered down gospel because there is a lack of personal time with the Lord and reading scripture. I used to be in deception with a watered down gospel, so this is a very hard topic for me. Because now that the Lord has opened my eyes to it, I can recognize it, but when I was in it I had no idea.

The reason I fell into the deception was because I did not read my bible. It was not a priority of mine. The beautiful, living and active word of God, sat on my nightstand, but was not picked up everyday. Maybe once a week to twice a month. And because I was not filling my mind with Gods truth, I was not recognizing that I was being fed a watered down gospel. Thank you Lord for rescuing me!

The gospel is not about praying a prayer and then continuing life as normal. Jesus did not die on the cross for life as normal. The gospel is about recognizing Gods insane love and grace that was poured out and offered to us on the cross, the gospel is about being reconciled to our Father through Jesus and having intimacy, the gospel is about us being transformed by Jesus, day in and day out, and walking in His love and grace, the gospel is about us being so in love with Jesus that we cannot help but go tell others, the gospel is about us recognizing our authority in Christ and nullifying the powers of darkness in our life. The gospel is life changing. 

So my question to you is, are you living a transformed life? Are you pursuing Jesus and allowing Him to transform you into who He desires you to be? Or are you living life as normal? Here is how James wrote it in his letter to Jewish Christians…

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?  Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.  And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”and he was called God’s friend.  You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

LET”S GET PRACTICAL

So now, how do we do this practically? Well first off you have to know that it is not always easy. You will be shunned, you will lose relationships, you will face awkward situations, but you have to know that Jesus is worth all that plus more! 

I think the two greatest ways to practically live set apart are: to read scripture everyday and to find other friends who live set apart as well. 

If you are reading scripture, then you are filling your mind with Gods kingdom and His ways, so you understand how you should live your life. And then on those hard days or awkward conversations, if you have friends who are living set apart then you can lean on them for support.

For me, the area this is hardest in is with guarding my kids from influences. Our culture bombards our kids with filth at very young ages, forcing them to mature too quickly and exposing them to things they are not mentally, physically or emotionally ready for. It causes havoc on these kids but our society now says that is normal childhood, so yeah. But this is very challenging. This is a reason my husband and I homeschool our kids, however, not the whole reason. I still have a lot to learn (I only have littles still!) but our oldest is 5 and now I am starting to talk to him about things if we are going into a situation where I know he might be caught off guard about something.

I think there are 3 important things we can do for our kids when it comes to this hot topic of influence and raising them to live set apart. 1. Pray, pray and pray some more. As moms we should be praying for our kids every single day! 2. Fill them with Gods kingdom. Read scripture everyday. Listen to worship music every day. Talk to them about the stories your reading in the bible. Answer their questions, do not be too busy when they want to talk about God!! 3. Talk to them going into certain situations. 

Going to families where their kids have phones or tablets and can watch anything? Tell your kid and set the expectation before hand. Halloween coming up and you choose not to celebrate? Talk to them about it! (FYI, I talked to my kids last year about why we don’t do halloween and now our 3 year old goes around and tells everyone “my mom does not like magic bc it is mean to God, and she does not like ana and elsa”) So yeah, be prepared for everyone to potentially know about these conversations :) 

Don’t let there be an elephant in the room though. Prepare your kids as much as you can for their age and also know that they are watching you. Remember it is probably awkward for them too, so guide them through it and help them.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to say no. If you have been invited to a gathering and you are on the fence about the situation, then you should probably decline the invitation. Don’t feel bad about that either, please! Have confidence in living set apart for the kingdom of God!

I will finish with this. Living set apart inspires others. Living set apart opens eyes. Living set apart shows people that there is something better out there, Jesus! So let’s be the bride He is desiring to come back to. Let’s all work on our individual selves, and watch the body of Christ rise in beauty and testimony as we prepare for our King!