To the Girl Who Doesn't Know How to be a "Good Christian"

To the girl who doesn't know how to be a "good Christian",

Me neither, girl, me neither.

There can be a lot of pressure to be a "good Christian". Once you coin the title "Christian", it often feels like people's expectations of you go through the roof. Even in the church community, it's not hard to feel pressure from your fellow believers - spoken or unspoken. It's easy to feel alone when not many of the Christian's you're surrounded by are vulnerable about sin, doubt, or other struggles they're facing, and then you're trying to live up to near perfection. Buf if your like me, you don't need anyone help to make you feel like you need to be "good enough". I put that pressure on myself - even though I have good intentions to serve the Lord, it often becomes a mindset of "I need to be good [enough]."

Sometimes, even though I've been a Christian all my life, I can lose focus of the real point of being a Christian (following Jesus) and start worrying about being "good" or "doing the right things".

But friend, being a Christian is not about being perfect. It's not about trying to be perfect. It's not even about trying to be good. It's about walking with Jesus.

Nowhere in the Bible does God command us to be "good Christians". He calls us to do good works, but we aren't defined by our works. All He calls us to do is 1) love Him and 2) love others.

And ultimately, there is no such thing as a "good Christian". When it comes down to it, we are all sinners and we all fail more than we'd like to admit. (Romans 3:23, 7:14) We all are saved by grace.

Let's lay down the pressure and the striving to be "good". That's not the goal or the mission, so let's just lay that down. What do we do instead, though? If we aren't trying to be "good", then what are we trying to be?

We're trying to be reflections of Christ.

We can't be perfect like Christ was, but we are called to continually be renewed and transformed to look more like Jesus did. We are called to follow Jesus' example and share His love with the world.

"Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did." - 1 John 2:6

"To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps." - 1 Peter 2:21

"Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." - 1 Corinthians 11:1

"Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children," - Ephesians 5:1

You see, all throughout the Bible, we're called to follow Christ's example of loving God and loving people - not try to be perfect. Even though Jesus was perfect, God knows we aren't - and He offers grace upon grace for when we fail.

When we try to become "good Christians" , it takes the focus off of being in a relationship with Christ and emphasizes legalism. When we emphasize legalism, we focus more on doing good things than actually walking with the Lord, and then we get worn out because we are never good enough on our own, and we never will be. When we walk with Jesus, however, it's less about the good things we do and more about the ways that we are growing and learning. It becomes less of "look at all the good I've done!" and more of "look at all the good that God has done in my life!"

How do we do this? How do we shift our focus from being "good" to living like Jesus?

While this is something that I'm working through myself, I know we can't do it alone. It's by the strength of God that we change our mindset and our lifestyles, let alone our mission. In a culture that is so focused on "do more and be the best", we need God's help to lead us into a place where we simply follow His example and accept His grace when we need it.

Let's pray and lay our hearts before God (and all of our habits, intentions, and perspectives too) and ask Him to help us to reframe our thought process.

Let's dive into Scripture and see how Jesus lived so that we can live it out in our own lives.

Let's lean into our community (or create one) so that we can work together on becoming less "good" and more like Jesus. Let's pray together and dive into who Jesus really is with our people. Let's encourage one another and challenge one another to continually transform our hearts and our actions to look more and more like Jesus in all of our day to day activities.

When people look at me, I don't want them to say "wow, she's a really good person". I want them to say "wow, she really acts like Jesus". You too?

Let's stop trying to be "good Christians" and become reflections of Jesus.

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Friends, I hope that this post encouraged you and reminded you that you don't need to be "good" or "good enough", because all you need to do is walk with the Lord and let Him help you to be transformed to look more like Him. If this is something that you're struggling to grasp, then please let me know in the comments below so that I can pray for you specifically. If you have any encouragement and thoughts that you'd like to share, then please, please, please drop it in the comments as well so that we can uplift each other!