BY RICK ROBERTSON | American Family Radio
The Apostle Paul writes in Colossians that all things were created for Christ. Travel as far as your imagination can take you and you won’t discover anything that isn’t His. Everything that exists was created for Christ and that includes your life and mine! But the reality for us as Christians is that we too often spend our money, choose our friends and make a thousand other decisions as if everything exists for us. It’s a constant struggle, isn’t it?

In The Complete Works of Edward Payson, American evangelist Edward Payson (1783-1827) explains the imperative of focusing on Christ and not ourselves. He said of Christians, “You, as well as all other objects and beings, were created for Christ. You were created on purpose to promote His glory and execute His will. … You were created, that like so many planets, you may revolve around Christ the Sun of Righteousness, drink in light, and love, and glory, from His beams, and reflect beams to the admiring eyes of fellow saints and angels forever and ever. … Ought you not always remember that you are not your own, that you are bought with a price, that you are bound by every tie to glorify Christ in your bodies and in your spirits which are His?”

So what’s our response? First, we must realize that we desperately need God’s grace to empower us to overcome our self-centeredness. The battle is lost unless we’re strengthened by God.

Secondly, we must understand that there are things we must do for change to take place. That includes serious Bible study, time alone with God, and a host of other means from attending church to learning from our mentors.

The great shift from lives centered on ourselves to lives centered on Christ won’t take place without effort. Yet it’s a shift that must take place. After all, you and I are His.