Christian, you have a mission.
We live within a battleground. God has not saved us simply so we can live comfortably, self-centeredly. We have been conscripted into an army - we forget that. We have a mission, to take the message of His salvation and Lordship deep into enemy territory and give the message to the lost. We are called to live, work, and yes, even play - with that mission in mind.
Many of us have long deserted that mission, AWOL and living like we're simply existing and marking time in relative comfort until the Lord calls us home. Some have given up, either explicitly or subconsciously. Others have let the worldly concerns cloud our sight of the primary objective. There are a multitude of excuses. But there are no excuses.
Philippians 1:27-30. Ephesians 6:10-18. Joshua 5:13-6:27. The list goes on. This theme of conflict flows straight on through the Bible, that we are in a spiritual war - and that we are to take up arms in the fight, and that our fight will not be easy. The American church seems to have largely forgotten this, in our comfort. We will have pain, we will suffer, we will despair, we will feel like the tide of inevitability is crushing down upon us - but all of that is predicated on lies. It relies on the belief that this is the best you get. But there is so much more, waiting on the other side, for those faithful to the end.
Our mission is simple: to proclaim the faith of the gospel. We fulfill this mission through several means.
We walk consistently, in a manner worthy of the gospel, as sojourners from another place, for our citizenship is not of this world. This doesn't mean that you strive for perfection, for you will never attain that. This means that you earnestly pick up your cross and follow Christ. If you have erred, repent of it and be restored. If you stumble, pick yourself up again. The Father is mighty to forgive our transgressions, but if we ask for forgiveness only to turn directly back into them, we aren't going to be praised for it. We must deny self and walk humbly with our God.
We work together toward the same goal as a unit. Sin itself nearly makes this almost impossible, with all our infighting, squabbling, hardened hearts, gossip, and pet peeves. This should not be so. We should strive to lift one another up, as Christ lifts us up, to work together in fulfilling our mission. The mission is bigger than any one person, we must work cooperatively in order to do this. The unit can be sized anywhere from a family, to a church group, to the entire congregation. We can't do the work effectively if we are marred by the outworking of sin in our hearts. We must love one another and be reconciled to one another and to Christ. All pointing the same way.
We keep our eye on our brethren, rendering aid when they are injured and providing correction when we err. We might know the outcome of the war, but that does not give us license to ignore the consequences of the battles. If we see our brethren in need, or even the civilians of the mission field, we love them as Christ loves us by helping where we can, how we can, within reason. We are to love God with all our soul, heart, mind, and strength, and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.
But never forget the mission. Don't get complacent from the comfort. Don't hold the grudge of sin in your hearts. Don't let secondary issues cause you to ignore your brethren. Instead, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ, and remember that the way he is walking is not the wide, well-trodden, easy path. It is the narrow, winding, craggy, difficult path, that leads to the narrow gate, to where we call Home.