Am I really a Christian?

Not many Christians think of themselves as unbelievers. After all, we normally use the term to describe people who aren’t Christians at all. Most of us can happily sign up to the creeds of our church. But our problems rarely arise from a lack of belief in a confessional or theoretical sense, though this may be the case. More often they arise from functional or practical disbelief. The problems lie in the gap between what we believe in theory and what we believe in practice.

“On Sunday morning I sing of my belief in justification by faith (confessional faith), but on Monday morning I still feel the need to prove myself (functional disbelief). Or I may believe I’ll be acquitted on the day of judgment, but I still want to justify myself in an argument tomorrow. I may affirm that God is sovereign (confessional faith), but I still get anxious when I can’t control my life (functional disbelief). Sanctification is the progressive narrowing of the gap between confessional faith and functional faith.”

Tim Chester

Prayer: Lord, teach us to admit that there are still a lot of disbelief in our life even though we confess with our mouth we believe in You - but our heart still far away from You. Teach us to believe in You with our heart, teach us to believe we can't change our life just by saying "I believe in You" 

Every time when I wake up every morning, and when I found there is no progressive narrowing of the gap between my confessional faith and functional faith or when that gap becomes wider and wider, I'll be asking to myself, am I really a Christian?