It might confuse you to think of your relationship with Christ as self-centered. Just take a minute to do some self-reflection on why you believe in God. Do you find yourself believing because you know that he exists? Does your mind process how everything that we see and think comes from God?
How do you go from a belief in God to a relationship with God? When you believe in God, you trust that he exists. When you believe God, you desire to have a relationship with him. You seek to follow his desires. But what happens when your relationship with Christ becomes self-centered? Instead of walking with God to get to know him, you instead promote your desires in his name. What could have been spiritual growth, becomes a crumbled foundation in your spiritual life.
Instead of listening to God and trying to follow his will for your life, you instead turn to self-promotion. Your mindset becomes I think God wants me to do this or he is ok with this. Instead of having confidence in his will, we question what he wants us to do. When we reach a certain point in our spiritual life, we know what we should be doing and what we shouldn't be doing. When we have doubt in our minds as to his stamp of approval, it is probably time to put on the brakes.
How do we turn a self-centered relationship into a walk with Christ?
The term self-centered refers to something being about us. It is our want or desire. When we wholeheartedly desire to do what God wants us to do, our mind does not get clouded with doubt. The doubt you hear in your mind is your lack of trust. Notice how I did not say lack of faith. I am not suggesting that you do not have a relationship with Jesus. What I am saying is that you do not fully trust him with his desire for your life.
I understand this feeling first hand. I have found myself stumbling in the past and not trusting God. When I found myself in situations where I struggled, I noticed something in common every time. Each time I found myself trusting God more, the path in my life got clearer. Instead of having a self-centered relationship with Christ, I instead turned to Christ to form my thoughts and actions. Letting go of what I thought was best and instead trusting what path God had chosen for me made all of the difference in my life.
God's plan for us
Jeremiah 29:11 NASB “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
Sometimes your path in life pulls you through the trenches. You are tested not for your faith, but for your trust in God. Each time we battle a dark situation in our life, we can find peace knowing that God his walking beside us. Our fear and resistance is a lack of trust. If we trust Jesus with our salvation, then why wouldn't we trust him with our daily struggles?
Instead of our prayers being God help me, we need to change them to your will. We do not need to tell God what we want our path to look like. We need to let him know that we trust his wisdom. Our soul should find complete comfort knowing that the same God that saved you from an eternity in hell is not going to leave you ever.