When we choose to follow Jesus, we go from stumbling around in the darkness to living in the light. Like a baby sees the light of day for the first time when they open their eyes at birth, God reveals His light to us by opening our eyes when we're born again spiritually. And when His Spirit draws us out of the darkness, we then become His light in the world.

We may not always see the result of God's work until we get to heaven. That doesn't lessen our responsibility to obey when He directs us to pray and to act! The Holy Spirit is in all those who believe and trust in the Lord, and as we walk in the Spirit, we need to be ready to respond when we're prompted.

When we decide to follow Jesus, He offers us a clean slate and a fresh start. But when we continue to live in sinful ways, sooner or later, God can say, "Enough already!" and leave us to suffer our own consequences. Before we get to that point, let's turn to Him and repent, knowing it's not in our sin that we find what we need but that He alone provides us more than enough.

We’ve all messed up, and God is holy, so He takes sin seriously. The punishment for sin is death, but because of His love for us, He sent His Son to die in our place, so His blood can wash away our sins. We’re called to share this amazing news with others, so they can find forgiveness and be saved too.

One of the most difficult parts about following Christ is this hard truth: most of the time, things don't change overnight. Our lives don't suddenly become problem-free. Even after making the decision to follow Him, we'll still face struggles day in and day out. The difference is that when we keep ourselves focused on Christ, He gives us peace, joy, and strength to overcome those battles in a way we couldn't manage on our own.

Discipleship is critical when it comes to the Church -- because without it, all we're left with is a bunch of born-again spiritual orphans with no one to look after them. Every Christian is commanded to make disciples who will grow spiritually and be able to disciple others in turn. As believers, God will call each of us to seek out someone new to the family of God to take under our wing, and pour into their life in a way that helps them mature to a position of doing the same for someone else.

The devil is always working around the clock to sucker us into his schemes. The reason we stumble and fall, time and time again, is because we keep falling for the same tricks he's always used. As followers of Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living inside us and guiding us away from the enemy's traps -- but it's up to us to obey God's prompting when He tells us to stay away.

God sent Jesus to live perfectly, die for us, rise again, and defeat sin and death. He did His part so that we could have eternal life. Our part? It's simply this: accept the gift and live in obedience to Him.

We're surrounded by bad advice everywhere we look. Yet God promises to give us wisdom if only we seek Him! When we follow His direction for our lives, He can use us to grow His Kingdom by reaching others.

When Jesus was on earth, He brought His disciples to a mountaintop -- and there, He unveiled His glory and met with Moses and Elijah to be encouraged for what He was about to face on the cross. The light that shone through Christ Himself is inside all those who follow Him -- and if we let Him, He can use us to bring others from darkness to Light.