Going to church every Sunday doesn’t necessarily mean a person is a Christian (Matthew 7:15). A Christian is a true follower of Jesus who has submitted their entire life to God and is now a new creation in Him. You will know a true Christian by their fruit (Matthew 7:18).

Jesus is the antidote to all our problems, but we still live in a fallen world where terrible things happen. Christ already warned us about this (John 16:33). When following Jesus, you will face hardship (sometimes for the mere fact that you love Him so much), but it’s always worth it knowing He is a God who knows our suffering personally and will always offer us a safe place to land.

Jesus tells us point blank that if we seek Him, we’ll find Him (Matthew 7:7-8). So there’s no need to be a scholar to crack the code to what God’s been saying to you all along. His Word is a love story about the world (and people) He created choosing brokenness over a relationship with Him and how He sent His Son to heal that brokenness and to be in communion with us again. You don’t need a PhD to fully know that kind of love.

During this journey, you won’t always be on fire in the faith. There will be times when you question God, yourself, and fall victim to Satan’s uncanny ability to take away the joy we have in Christ. And this is why we need other believers in our lives so that they can encourage us (1 Thessalonians 5:11), pray for us, and show us through their own deeds how God isn’t giving up on them and He’s not giving up on you either.

We’re taught that a church is a beautiful building with stained glass windows, the smell of incense, and statues of humans who died long ago. But according to the Word, the Church is something far different. It’s the body of believers (Corinthians 12:27) that Christ commands to come together to do the good deeds God assigned us to do before we were even born and celebrate that our Lord died for us and is coming back again. Church is the people who have died to self and taken on new lives in Christ Jesus.

When you become a new follower of Jesus, it can be tempting to start going to a local church and then sign up to do ALL the things at that church. But Paul points out in the New Testament that there are certain good works we were created to do (Ephesians 2:10). Plus, we are all different parts of the body, meaning God has made us and will use us for various things (1 Corinthians 12:12). That’s why it’s important to pray before we jump into a new endeavor to make sure it’s something God wants for us and not just something we’ve decided to undertake.

We’re often wrongly taught that Christians are supposed to be “nice” and act as doormats to the people around them. But you certainly won’t find that mentality in Scripture. We are to be kind (in fact, it’s one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23), but sometimes kindness means creating boundaries and using the word “no.” Jesus said to let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no” (Matthew 5:37), indicating we have agency in choosing our next steps (as long as they’re in line with God’s will). Jesus Himself was never a doormat, standing up to the Pharisees and moving on from people who didn’t want to submit to His reign. And as “1ittle Christs” (the very definition of the word “Christian”), we should follow suit.

Even though there are some toxic situations where setting boundaries with others might be appropriate out of respect for our relationship with Jesus, we still need to consider that Christ commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. God has given all of us free will and the ability to choose to follow Him. Just because someone doesn’t choose Him doesn’t always mean we remove them from our lives. As a rule, it might be helpful to have a mindset like Joshua's: “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15).

Scripture makes it very clear that it’s the Holy Spirit who does the work of conversion in a person’s heart (Ephesians 2:1-5). So what role do we play as followers of Christ? We’re merely to be messengers of the Gospel (“Good News”), telling others how Christ suffered and died for their sins and that they now have the opportunity to be with Jesus forever by believing this and following Christ’s guidance in their lives. That’s it. No Bible-thumping required.

It’s important to remember we can do none of this on our own strength. It is God working through us that allows us to live and serve His will. It’s important to know we will still mess up, stumble, and sin along the way. But when we repent (turn away from our sin) and ask for God’s forgiveness, we can watch as His grace floods our lives and keeps us walking through the fire and the flames (Hebrews 4:16).