Personally Erik, I always thought that you were a pretty nice guy, more or less happy. I don’t know.
But one sure-powered way to show how Christ has changed your life is to spend it a bit toward working for others, even volunteer.
Someone who is actually a spiritual person, who experiences Christ in his/her life will not self-focus so much or in-focus, if that’s an actual word, but their focus will be toward other people.
You consider yourself to be a child of God and a follower of Christ - what does the bible show that Christ did? He went out to meet the people, to bless them, care for them, give them what they needed.
He fed a multitude with fish and bread too I think ``` because he took compassion on the people. He didn’t just speak about feeling compassion - he became compassion and gave it to others.
When I was a believer the one person who I admired more than anyone and I don’t believe he is a saint was Fr. Damien of Molokai. Priest or no priest, that is my idea of a spiritual person.
He wasn’t solely about himself in his spirituality. His spirituality was both inward toward His God and outward toward God’s people.
When we do nothing but speak about our great love for God and how this God has changed us, made us happier, more compassionate - in a way I see that as hubris, or even spiritual pride. I do believe that there is such a thing.
You might try volunteering at a soup kitchen, or a hospital or with the elderly or with young abused children. You know how to box. You can teach young boys how to box and how to grow into more self-esteem.
Perhaps your God might be much more happy with you in this way than in your focusing so much on how you love God. If the NT teaches anything, it’s about how loving God brings one to loving God’s creations.
Otherwise, it might just be about how wonderful it is about the loving of God.
In other words, it might be no more or less than how we love the feeling of being in love. But is it really Love.
I will respond to both Wendy and Arcturus, in this post.
Wendy, thank you for sharing that experience. True beauty is on the inside. In the next life, people’s outward beauty will reflect their inner beauty.
I like to keep many of my personal experiences private, as they are sacred. But sometimes, I may share them with the right individual.
Arcturus, you are totally correct about true spirituality being lived out in such ways as volunteer work and loving others, making a difference in their lives. One of the true forms of worshipping God is to bring happiness to another person’s heart. When you live in such a way, you prove that you truly believe in the sacrifice of Jesus. We are saved ONLY by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, but if you truly believe on his sacrifice, you will naturally do good works and be loving towards others. These good works do NOT save you. Jesus’ sacrifice is the ONLY thing that saves you. Good works are merely evidence that you, really, believe upon the sacrifice of Jesus.