Becoming like Christ

Sunday 2 July
READ: Phil. 3: 10 - 21
MORE LESSON: Acts 4: 9-13

As disciples, we must resemble our Master in every way. The most wonderful achievement for us is to be compared to Jesus in word, deed and attitude though Jesus is beyond compare. When Jesus was to be arrested by the Pharisees, they needed someone to point Him out among His disciples. This was because He and His disciples all lived, dressed and talked alike so that outsiders could not easily differentiate one from the other except someone very close identified Him.
This is a lesson for all leaders in the Body of Christ; we need leaders that will so much mix with the people in humility that we cannot easily see the demarcation between the leaders and the led by positional differentiation. God wants us as disciples of Jesus to be so much like Christ that people would have a hard time differentiating between us and Christ. From the Bible, we know that the disciples were first referred to as Christians in Antioch.
This was because they behaved so much like Christ in every way that they had to refer to them as 'People who are like Christ'. The moment people see us they should know we are followers of Christ. In fact, they should know we are from a living church of God. It is a great thing for us to do wonderful things and people ask, ‘Are you from so and so church? we have noticed that people from there have this unique attribute’. Our lives should be a testimony of the glory of God and not a reproach to the Lord. We must live for the Lord and be like Him. Becoming like Christ is the hallmark of the Christian experience.
Christianity is not about prosperity and success even though God blesses us with those as we serve Him. Christianity is not about marriage and having wonderful family though they are part of the blessings obtained in Christ, nor is it about greatness and becoming prominent though it is part of His blessings as we follow Him. If there is a summary of what genuine Christianity is, it is becoming like Christ in word, work, nature and lifestyle. When we become like Christ, the things that we struggle for will naturally come to us. We must make becoming like Him the highest pursuit of our lives.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to make you more like Jesus, in Jesus’ mighty name.
* Pray that you will be a worthy epistle of Christ for the world to read, in Jesus’ name.
* Pray that the pursuit of the presence of Jesus become your burning ambition.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
My Father and my God, I declare that the second half of the year is for my advancement above every force of darkness, in the mighty name of Jesus.