By Arlo Mellors, Jubilee Church Wirral

I have had this on my heart for some time, and would like to share some of my thoughts.

• AM I doing what is on the tin?
• AM I living as a born again believer?
• AM I loving my neighbour?
• AM I helping the needy?
• AM I doing as God has asked me?
• AM I living how the Bible says I should live?
• AM I reading the Bible and meditating on what I have read?
• AM I being obedient?

The answers to many of these questions will sadly be no, as I am not perfect and will never be…..but…..

That is a massive but.

• AM I willing to try harder?
• AM I willing to change my ways?
• AM I willing to do as God has asked me to?
• AM I willing to accept that my old life has gone and my new life is now?
• AM I willing to accept that people may judge me and ridicule me?
• AM I going to try my utmost best to be positive?
• AM I going to look at my lifestyle and ask myself am I living how God wants me to live?

How am I going to be able to accomplish all this? By reading and praying and asking God to take over my life. To help me understand the really meaning of being born again. Getting rid of the OLD life and being a NEW creation. Asking God to take over ALL aspects of my life.

When accepting Jesus as our personal saviour, we need to realise that there will be a huge change in ourselves, our hearts and the way we see things. We need to realise that we cannot go back to our previous lives.

As many people who know me, know I like my sport, either playing or watching, I have realised that my Christian walk is similar to sports. Let me explain.

An athlete needs to be well prepared, physically, emotionally and mentally.

All sporting athletes train hard, and this takes hours, months and years of practice. To be the best in your sport there are a lot of sacrifices.

In our walk with Jesus, this is a day-to-day occurrence, and it can be months and years to see what we have sacrificed.

Athletes have to have a base to work from. It all depends on what sport you are in, for myself it is rugby, so my base will be the rugby club. We have a gym and all the equipment needed for a rugby team.

My sport is a team effort, however it is up to the individual to maintain their own fitness, as a team we do fitness together but that is twice a week, which really is not enough. With my fitness I try to maintain good core muscles, I need my core to be fit and strong as the position I play in the team requires me to be able to run and tackle and push in the scrums.

As a Christian, my base is the church; my team is the groups I belong to. My core is reading the Bible, praying and standing firm on God’s word. My position within the team (church) is to spread the gospel, to help the needy, to love my neighbour, to do what God has called me to do.

My favourite Bible verse is Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I also like to read the following scriptures:

Exodus 20 – The 10 Commandments

Matthew 6:9-13 – The Lord’s Prayer

What I like to do when reading any Bible scriptures, is to work out how I can fit my life around the verse that stands out or that has spoken to me. It is not easy as life does get in the way, but I try.

I know life has its difficulties but God is the same throughout, God never fails, never changes and God will never harm you. God is our protector, all we need to do is have faith, and love Him always.

Life has thrown many curve balls my way and I am sure that there will be many more to come, but I know if I submit my life to God and do God’s work and try and lead a Christian life then it will all be ok. It’s not going to be easy but it will be ok.

When listening to Christian music, there are lyrics that we can use to get closer to God when worshipping. Here are some that particularly help me:

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me.
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom’s cause,
As I walk from earth into eternity

I feel when you read or listen to these words God is talking to us, in what we should be doing as Christians.

Let your spirit be led by God, If you give your all God will lead you to amazing things.

Commit your life to God.

Arlo Mellors, Jubilee Church Wirral