This is now the 4th guest post and contribution to my “Why are you a Christian?” series, and it comes from the wonderful Ally Gillies. I’ve known Ally since September, when he joined the staff team at Gold Hill as an intern. I’ve loved working with and getting to know Ally. He’s also my youngest contributor so far, at 19 years old, and the most Scottish.
Here are Ally’s thoughts on the question “Why are you a Christian?”
As a Christian, I belong TO Christ. I live FOR Christ. I am alive because OF Christ. I exist TO give glory to Christ, out of a response to His perfect love and sacrifice for me. It’s no longer about looking inwardly (as I would probably get very discouraged by what I found there!) but looking to Him in all His wonder and splendour for all the help and instruction for my walk with Him.
My life now has meaning; I have life in all its fullness because of Him. I have been rescued from eternal separation from God through Jesus’ death and resurrection and have been brought into a full and vibrant relationship with Him, and one day I will be with Him forever in Heaven. And that I get to share that wonderful, wonderful news with other people and play a part in God’s plan for other peoples’ lives? Wow. That excites me. That gets me out of bed in the morning.
I am no longer a slave to sin, but a child of the King with a purpose, plan and identity in Jesus. I am accepted, loved, unique, blessed, secure, forgiven, cared for and saved by Him. And His grace is enough for the times when I slip up or fall down, which gives me strength to continue walking further on the journey of my life with Him. My service is no longer requires a certain amount of ability or experience; Jesus works through me despite that. My gifts have been given by Him in love; my motivation is found in Him, my confidence is placed in Him. In God, my strength is found, my hope is built, and my future is meaningful and vibrant.
I love this quote from Billy Graham:
“The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’”
This is a look into a realistic view of the Christian life. It’s not a continual period of senseless lunacy and meaningless euphoria, or some kind of replacement for narcotics! It is a dynamic, powerful, active, scriptural, loving relationship, but it is also a difficult, sometimes painstakingly and sometimes painfully difficult whereby the victory has been won but the devil is trying to do damage as he is being defeated. In short, our time on this planet doing God’s will is not an easy task – but it is worth it.
This really encourages me in that I can often treat failure or a season with what seems to be a decrease in activity – depending on the severity of it – as a block to my usefulness in the Kingdom of God rather than an opportunity or time in which I am being grown, both closer with God and in my service to Him. What’s more, failures can keep me humble.
Fundamentally, I think that the Christian life is about placing Jesus at the centre, so that when we fail or when situations and circumstances surround us and make us feel helpless and like we cannot go on, we must remember to turn our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He is the one thing in our lives that will never fail. He is the person that when we feel like we are losing the battle, picks us up and dusts us off and says “I am with you.” He is the Emmanuel. The King of kings and Lord of lords. The Great I AM. And I am so glad that he found me. I’m not an author or a blogger, and I sometimes find it hard to articulate things in writing, but this I know; Jesus is LORD.”
Amen. Ally, thank you for sharing your heart and your faith! If anyone has any questions or comments for Ally, drop them below and I’ll make sure he sees them. If you want to hear others’ answers, a full list can be found here.