How Can I Have a Deeper Commitment to God?

In the early centuries of the Church, Christ's followers, through their compassion and kindness, served the people around them, making a difference in the world around them. As a result, it is estimated that the early church grew at a rate of 40 percent per decade during the first several centuries.

The early Christians didn't have direct mail, a nice website or banners to get their message across. All they had were themselves and an incredible love for Jesus and for one another. When I turned 15 my grandma said to me - Do you want to be a successful Christian? Just be one. - That means commit yourself to being who you say you are, act like, think like, look like, feel like, and speak like. Be it! This is the first advice for someone seriously considering a deeper commitment with God. Think of the direction of your life at this point. As one pastor put it "Are you on God's side or Satan's side?"

Why trust Jesus Christ with your future? Because the Lord is trustworthy, because of His divine credentials, His words still stimulate our thinking and alter our behavior.

The Shift from Me to God

If you have made your choice for the Lord and you turned your life to God, soon you will find out that is not enough. Why? Because God now will take out the plan for your life and begin to move you according to the Will of the Father. I remember when I offered my life to Christ and I was so happy, but I didn't want to go to seminary. When you are attached to anything, then your hands are back on the steering wheel of your life and as a result you will not hear God's voice. If you don't hear God's voice you will not know God's will. It took me a long time to learn this lesson. Now every time something bothers me. I surrender that worry to the Lord, I ask for direction and roll up my sleeves.

The second step to have a deeper commitment with Christ is to let His word fill your mind, and your heart. Accept the word of God as true and finished.

Third step is to enter into a personal relationship through prayer and reception of the sacraments. Go to the Eucharist as much as you can. Your only worry should be to correspond to God's love. "Lord I want to be an acceptable temple for you".

Four, find a spiritual advisor, a priest, sister, deacon or lay person who is dedicated to God and ask for advice and guidance. Pray, Trust and Do.

If you live a life of deep relationship then you will be ready to answer a particular call to follow Christ as His missionary, married man or woman, as His consecrated religious, priest, or lay person. Otherwise go back to the beginning of this page.

Practical

1. Create a daily reminder to turn your eyes back to Jesus. It can be as simple as deciding to recalibrate your focus each time you check your email, hang up the phone, finish a meeting or a class.
2. Treat Mass as the most important moment of your day, because it is. Decide how you will prepare for this sacrifice. Make sure you are rested. Put a bookmark in the Psalms 120 through 134, or the readings of the day so you can meditate on them before you head out to Church. Use your drive time as prayer time, turn the radio or Ipod off. Sit down or kneel five or ten minutes before Mass begins and use the time for prayer.
3. Sign up for Adoration of the Eucharist in your local parish. If there is no adoration you could find the nearest one, or get a group of friends and volunteer to have adoration once a month for an hour.
4. Buy a notebook and for a month keep notes during the homilies. Write what you learned and review them during the night. Think back over your life and identify some of the ways God has spoken to you and led you through. Thank the Lord and reflect on how you heard God's voice in the past so that you will recognize it with greater clarity in the future.
5. Write your own prayer or find one that you like and use it often.
6. By growing in your commitment to the Lord you are fulfilling your call to holiness from your baptismal commitment. This is what your vocation is all about!

Pray, trust and do.