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I am not referring here to nominal Christians who go to church and assume they are Christians. There are those who believe in Jesus as their Saviour, who have been born again and become children of God, and attend Bible studies, prayer meetings and evangelistic activities, who have given Christ control only over a part of their life. If their life can be pictured as a house with many rooms, all rooms have not been submitted to the Lord but are still managed by their own desires, ambitions, preferences, likes and dislikes, etc. Here they make their own plans, follow their own rules and standards, and set their own priority for things. The sad fact is that they think this is the normal Christian life.

There could be several reasons for this. One is a wrong impression they have that being born again is everything, and that God will take care of everything else after that and take them to heaven one day. Another is a false distinction that people make among children of God thinking that only a certain class of people are privileged to enjoy a deeper life with Jesus because of their position in life, Bible knowledge, etc., while the rest have to make do with an 'ordinary life'! But Jesus wants everyone to become His disciples who will follow Him and obey everything He tells them (Mt.28:19,20:Lk.9:23). That is how they are to become like Him.

For some people, there are other considerations. Some do not want to have to suffer any loss in their earthly life, in terms of money, position, comfort, popularity, ambition, etc., as a result of standing with Jesus. Their willingness to stand with Jesus is there only to the extent that they can have these also. Some others are not willing to give up certain pleasures even when they know they are displeasing to God. For some people, the people they love are more important than God, and they would rather displease God than displease them (Mt.10:37).

All these people have not yet seen Jesus as the Pearl of greatest value for whom they are willing to give up all else (Mt.13:45,46). As a result, they have not become willing to choose Him above everything else. They are apparently only thinking in terms of their earthly life, because they believe that their life in eternity is taken care of by their faith in Jesus. But they are losing all the blessings they could have had in eternity if only they had been faithful (Ja.1:12). Imagine their regret when they stand before the Lord and see the opportunities He had given them and realise how they had squandered them away for passing pleasures (He.11:24,25).

We all struggle against temptations, and the only One who has been a complete success is our Lord. As we carry with us the remnants of our old sinful nature, we may face failures even in the future. But that should not stop us from setting our heart on complete loyalty and faithfulness to our Master in every area of our life in our life's race without giving up in trials (He.12:2).

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