I'm young. How can I live the Christian life?

In a world where Satan is very active to beguile believers, the young Christian is his special target. So the question the Psalmist asked himself is today as important as in his day: how can a young man-or a young woman-lead a holy and pure life in unholy and sin-stained surroundings? The answer of Scripture is short but sufficient: by taking heed according to thy word. We live in a world where norms and values are changing at an ever-increasing speed. 'If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple' (Ps. 11:3,4). to become overcomers in this anti-Christian or post-Christian world, we need, whether young or old, to measure everything using God's plum line-His Word.

Does some young believer ask us to be severely practical, and to come very close home to the point? Then we say, "Cut out of your life those 'harmless' amusements, those unprofitable frivolities, those little time-wasting engagements that accomplish nothing and lead you nowhere. Fill your heart and mind and time with the Word of God and prayer, give yourself whole-heartedly to the glad service of the Lord Jesus, and ere long your profiting will appear to all."

Now I would like those, who are redeemed, who can say they have trusted Jesus as their Saviour, to be like the honoured ass. What I mean by that is this. Let the blessed Saviour guide you through this world. Let Him direct your ways and conduct, so that you may be really like little Christians. A boy or girl should be as real a Christian as a grown-up man or woman. Dear little Christian, do you read your Bible every day, and pray that the blessed Lord may guide you. If He is your Saviour, He is also your Lord, and claims your willing obedience.

We would again entreat every young man just about to sail out of the harbor, to make a good start . If he wavers at first, or yields a little for the sake of peace, he will not get it; but, on the contrary, he may be drawn on, little by little, from bad to worse, until no outward sign of Christianity is left at all. A bold front at first, saves a great deal of trouble and fighting afterward. Be sure, however, that the trust is not in your own strength but that every step is taken with prayer and dependence on God. As for the future, leave that with your heavenly Father, seeking only to live each day more truly to His glory than you did the day before. Such a course is worth a hundred sermons, for who can tell the mighty power of the unconscious influence exercised by a consistent Christian life?

See to it, young Christian, that you do not hinder this loving service by neglect of your Bible, by a prayerless spirit, and by unjudged evil in your life. You belong to the regeneration. Make it ever your object to act accordingly, cleaving to the Lord with purpose of heart.

Oh, that young believers would learn to use God's renewings. There are, alas! so many old ones whose love and devotedness have grown cold and whose life is stunted, that young ones begin to think it is a necessity to get thus impoverished and spiritually decrepit. Oh! it is not so. Only start with God, and go on with God. "As ye have, therefore, received CHRIST JESUS THE LORD, so walk ye in Him" (Col. 2:6). Spread out your roots by the ever-flowing river, and your leaf shall be green, and each fruit will grow in its season. Get anointed with fresh oil, and your lives will be burning and shining for Him. Get your souls satisfied with His good things, and your youth will be renewed as the eagle's. Wait on the Lord and He will renew your strength, and you will go from strength to strength, from victory unto victory. You shall receive abundance of grace, and your path will be as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day.

Now, I hope my young friends will remember that as the green blade requires light from the sun, and rain from heaven in order to produce the ear and the full corn in the ear, so in the Christian life both prayer and the word of God are indispensable for growth and fruitfulness. In prayer you will be consciously in the light of God, Who is light (1 John 1:5). In reading the scripture, God will speak to you out of it concerning His Son, and that will be like showers of refreshing rain upon your heart. By this means, you will "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

The Lord always keeps His simple dependent ones thus. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." But then the knowledge of God always humbles; the more we know of Him, the more shall we know of our own emptiness. "If any man think he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." Just as the babe is constantly receiving nourishment from the mother, so need we to be constantly receiving spiritual nourishment from the word of God. When the word is received by us in faith, we become strengthened; we grow thereby in the knowledge of God, and of His grace. The apostle Paul, having heard of the faith of the Ephesians in the Lord Jesus, prays "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory," would "give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints," etc. Having "tasted that the Lord is gracious," we come to His word and receive from Him that which we need to comfort, nourish, and refresh our souls. The word always comes with savour from Himself; it is known as "the word of his grace." I may study the word again and again; but unless I get into communion with Him by it, it will profit me nothing - at least at the time.

We must learn what God is to us, not by our own thoughts, but by what He has revealed Himself to be, and that is, "The God of all Grace." The moment I understand that I am a sinful man, and yet that it was because the Lord knew the full extent of my sin, and what its hatefulness was, that He came to me, I understand what grace is. Faith makes me see that God is greater than my sin, and not that my sin is greater than God. … The Lord that I have known as laying down His life for me, is the same Lord I have to do with every day of my life, and all His dealings with me are on the same principles of grace. The great secret of growth is, the looking up to the Lord as gracious. How precious, how strengthening it is to know that Jesus is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love towards me as when He died on the cross for me.

Young Christians, do you know what it is to mortify your members which are upon earth? We are not Christians worth the name if we have not to say “NO” to ourselves many a time. It is well to really face matters, and once and for all decide to seek by the grace and help of the Lord to be true to Christ in all things, and to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.