Christ Centered Life

I want Christ at my center. And I want it to show. I want to be completely rid of myself. When people look at me, I want them to see Jesus. I've realized lately in my surrendering to God that I haven't been giving myself completely up to him. And what does that look like? Well that's what I've been finding out now..
When Christ is at your center you are a new being, there is nothing in you that resembles your old self. The new has come, the old has gone. Christ at the center is in everything you do. Especially in your actions. Christ loves, He is exceptionally good at it. It's His perfected art, loving the unworthy. So we're called to be 'imitators of Christ,' meaning we need to love others as well! But why? And this is what I find to be most important, I find most Christians willing to love others but they don't get WHY or understand WHAT that love looks like. Loving others is about SHARING God's love, the same love He gave to YOU. It's not about just loving someone for them, it's about SHOWING them God's love. That is so important to understand. And what does that look like? Compassion, forgiveness, complete devotion to loving and caring for them. It's not just being a friend, it's being there in a way that non-Christians can't be for that person. Anyone can love someone but not anyone can love like Christ loves others.
Another really important thing I've been learning is your thought process. You're actions may reflect a Christ Centered Life, but what does your mind set/heart have to say about it? Are you doing things for the wrong reasons? God sees your execution process and cares a lot more about what is going on inside your head and heart then what your actions are saying. And that's absolutely terrible news to me because often times I'm going places and doing deeds for the WRONG reasons. For fulfillment of me and not Glory to God. Your mind is probably the most important thing in being Christ centered, because that's the one thing that is between YOU and GOD. No one else can see it, no one else can hold YOU accountable to it. God sees it all, make sure your thoughts are honorable and pleasing to Him. Make sure HE is your motivation, not YOURSELF.
Finally, I'd have to say ...fire. When there is a real fire, a real pit of despair usually we call out to God. Not all of us call out to God the way Isaiah did in Worship, honestly I'm trying to get there but it's a long journey. So we call out to God, we ask Him to help us in our time of need. But often times we expect God to heal our problems and work a miracle..our prayer maybe shouldn't always be.. FIX THIS, but Lord, please help me ACCEPT THIS. Accept my situation, because it may not improve by your will. I absolutely DESPISE when preachers make Christianity out to be a 'life-fixer,' like if you have faith and believe in Jesus Christ you will be happy and you won't have hard times. FALSE. God is good, but trials do happen. The real journey is in finding JOY in those hard times. Praising God for who He is in those painful ruts. God doesn't promise you a life of bliss, most likely He will have trials set before you, to BETTER you and make you stronger. He KNOWS exactly what you can handle and what you cannot handle. He'd NEVER give you more than you can take. So He uses trials to draw you nearer to Him. He wants you to accept His love, He wants you to be a child of God, He wants you to find joy in Him. He doesn't want to see you suffer, He wants to see you stand in the fire because you know He is right by your side. “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” Isaiah 7:9
   Just some food for thought.
Warmly, Karis Oberman.