There are such people as pew warmers; warm bodies with cold hearts that occupy seats in churches. Pew warmers think they are Christians because they were born in a Christian family. Some may have heard a few snippets from the Bible, and nodded heartily to what was heard , all the while failing to put it into practice. Others may simply equate Christianity with good people and conclude if good people are Christians and they are “good people”, then surely they are Christian.
Interestingly some pew warmers don’t even go to church; but both the churched and non-churched variety are nominal Christians. Christians in name only. I would know because I was one of them.
Throughout high school I thought I was Christian because it was the religion closest to me. It was the one I was born into. Like with my last name, I took Christianity because it was there , then thought nothing of it. One day this thoughtless belief changed. While a freshman in college I surrendered my life to God. Before then, I wasn’t sure God even existed, but I did suspect that if I were to truly follow God he would require all of me. For many years I wasn’t willing to give up all my life to him. I had been fine treating him distantly and going to him only if I was scared or in trouble. Deep down I knew I was holding back yet didn’t care. Until I became desperate. On the day I surrendered I knew I couldn’t hold back anymore: I was so tired of my life, so tired of feeling lonely, so tired of my pain. So when I tearfully looked up from my bed and said “ I can’t do this anymore God”, I meant it. I made an active, conscious choice to surrender control of my life. In an instant I went from pew warmer to real Christian.
Real Christian
The difference between a pew warmer and a real Christian, is that a real Christian has decided actively to follow Jesus. When this happens God makes them a new person (2 Corinthians 5:17). Not only that, real Christians have chosen to believe with all their heart. This can be seen in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 8 vv 26-38, God supernaturally leads an evangelist named Phillip to meet an Ethiopian eunuch. When Phillip came to the eunuch, the eunuch was having difficulty reading a passage from Isaiah. The eunuch didn’t know it but he had been reading about the messiah Jesus. He asks Phillip what does Isaiah mean. Phillip uses the opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus. When Phillip finished preaching, the eunuch said
“Look, there's water! What would keep me from being baptized? ” [37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your hear you may". Some manuscripts have chosen to omit this verse. However, I believe it belongs there, simply because God spoke a similar word in the book of Jeremiah.
Some have debated what it means to be a true Christian. They ask “are you a Christian because you said a prayer, particularly one called the Sinner’s Prayer, one time in your life? I’d say “yes”, if you prayed it with all your heart. A true Christian is one who has believed in Jesus with all his heart. Now, some may ask “what constitutes believing with all the heart?” I think the answer is different for different people. We can’t prescribe an exact definition or criteria. However we can generally conclude it means if you’re prayed with all your heart, you’ve made a commitment. You have counted the cost and have decided to accept the message of the gospel. You may not perfectly understand all that entails( I didn't)———You may not grasp the degree of what you must give to God, but you do grasp that you must surrender: Afterall, you have believed in yourself, you have trusted in your own abilities, you have tried to direct the course of your life and have failed. When you've gotten sick of the failure, or even if you want to experience real Life, you decide to believe in Jesus with your whole heart. You may not know exactly what Christianity is (I didn’t) but you do know that you can’t stay where you are. To believe with all your heart is to say “I want what Jesus gives. Today I will receive it.” It means when you hear the gospel, you understand that when you come to God, there is no holding back. There is no half -hearted surrender. You give God all of you and you receive all of him.
But we are weak
You may not have the ability to surrender but even if you want to, it still counts as believing with all your heart. Like another person did, we can exclaim "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24) Of course, you may also stumble in following God. There will be moments you try to take back your life or parts of your life. This back-pedaling is inevitable, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (our imperfection is why we need Jesus in the first place). However, all it takes is one surrender to permanently belong to God. Though you may stray to unfaithfulness , he will ultimately keep his promise to to give you all of him. Thus to seek God with all the heart is a position of humility and determination. It means you understand your own weakness before God and you long for the One who can truly satisfy your heart’s desire for a full life. In surrendering to God, your heart turns from ice to fire because the very consuming fire of God comes to live inside of you. When you believe with all your heart, you are no longer content to warm pews, to merely sit in Christianity without commitment. No, when you believe with all your heart, you set the very world aflame with your passion for God .
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