Are We Just Playing Christian? | Christy Johnson

Our relationship with God is never about what He can do for us, it should always be about falling more in love with Him. Our earthly actions in attending church, doing ministry or giving to the poor will never get us into heaven, but true intimacy with Him will decide our trajectory. In the book of revelation, Jesus reminds us that it is so easy to become a group of people that are professional Christian's who maybe look the part, but nothing will matter if we don't allow ourselves to go back to the basics and to His first love.  One of the churches that did do well in His eyes, was the church of Sardis and like that church, if we seek him first and pursue him with a pure heart we can come to a place we will be rich in our spirits. Our prayer needs to be to get back to a raw hunger we used to have for God so that we can give him back something of value at the end. Here are the crowns we can cast at his feet: The crown of life - perseverance  The crown of righteousness - those who long for his return  The crown of glory - ministering to his sheep  Incorruptible crown - running the race with self control  Crown of exaltation - winning souls We have to remember that it's the enemy that is constantly after our faith and our relationship with Christ. As we wrestle with these principalities we have to remain faithful even to the point of death.The Bible says that the righteous receive those crowns as a reward and as those who truly hunger for Him, this is all we should see. None of us want to go to him empty handed so let's keep that at the forefront of your mind as we continue to persevere in our faith.