Words: Amy Perkins
Saturday, 16 January 2010

People always say, 'It's your life, you choose how you live it'. This, of course, is true - but it seems to me that they are referring to the idea of living under your own rules. As a Christian this isn't quite true. Yes, we make all our own decisions, but we do have a big helping hand, called the Bible.

The Bible says we are now co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), seated with him in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6). Therefore we are princes and princesses! We have, right there, the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom the Bible says where there is no sickness, no disease and no poverty. This is a cool Kingdom!

You might have noticed that there are Christians around you who are ill, or who may have died from a disease. And you may know Christians who are completely poor. This is because we still also live in this world. We kind of live in two places at the same time.

When we become a Christian, we enter the Kingdom of God, but the Bible says, we will not fully live in that Kingdom until Jesus returns. Therefore, until that happens, it is our obligation, to keep bringing God's Kingdom into the world.

This could sound like a load of gobblygoogook to you, but this is the place we are at as Christians. The simplest way for us to help bring the Kingdom of God down here on earth would be to, as Matthew 6:33 says, 'Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well'.

We need to choose to live righteously, and to serve God and worship him in all we do - this is the life of a Christian. Righteous sounds like a big word with no real sound meaning. But it is simple really. If you 'choose' to live 'right' as the Bible helps us know how, you will be living righteously.

Every time you are in a position to make a decision, you choose to live right, or not to; whether it's talking badly about a friend as soon as she leaves the room, or smoking with your friends, tidying your bedroom and taking responsibility for your possessions, or even your time.

Sitting in front of the TV after school everyday is not going to help bring the Kingdom of God. But talking to your parents and developing good relationships with people is.  You can choose to live righteously on just Sundays, or you can choose to live in a way that is pleasing to God everyday of your life. You choose, but make sure it is the right choice.