Acts 26:4. “My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews.”
MANNER OF LIFE. Whenever the story of salvation we tell, We usually go back to the first. It was there, when we were still on the road down to hell, That conviction of sin our pride burst.
Even though I was good by the standards of men, That in itself was no good. It seemed the more satisfied in self I became, The farther away from God that I stood.
It is true I didn’t do what others thought fun, Because I was raised to know better; I still was not saved and to hell would have gone, Knowing the message of grace to the letter.
I knew I was sinful though I wasn’t too bad By the standards that people want to live. My manner of life taught by Mother and Dad, Was a reflection of the model they gave.
But when the time came God spoke clearly to me, It was in a time when the Gospel was preached; I finally listened and then began to see, It is lost sinners that Christ came to reach.
It wasn’t the good, because there really is none, It was sinners that Christ came to save.
There no good sinners found, not even a one; Every one of us is in need of God’s grace.
Like Paul when the Lord spoke to him in the dust on the road, I too, had in nothing to boast. Though the manner of life may to many seem good; The Lord Jesus came here for the lost.
Before salvation we found out none is good; Then when Jesus was presented so plain; To accept Him as Savior and submit to the Lord, Brought life and I (and Paul) was born again.
Now as proof and evidence of a work in the heart; The twice born want their Lord to obey. When truth is presented; right at the start; We want to respond to what He will say.
Life is not mine to live any more; Just the way others and I want to choose. We are not our own, we own Jesus is Lord, And self-life we are glad now to lose.
“Father in heaven, may I really keep my manner of life in this new life I live, consistent with the faith I profess. I do not want to live a self-centered life of pride, but one of submission and spiritual grace. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”