When
it comes to experiencing God many people are missing out, not because God is
holding back on them, not at all but because they are unwilling to do what is
necessary to experience God. They may
talk to people about wanting to experience God, they tell others how they
strongly desire to really know and experience God but they are unwilling to
take the steps to do so. I remember when
I was college I had friends who would talk about how they would like to have better
grades, but instead of buckling down and studying they would go and hang out
with their friends. In Luke chapter nine
verse 57-58 we read about a guy who was all talk. “Now
it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord,
I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes
have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has
nowhere to lay His head.”
Let
us think about this quick conversation Christ has here with this man, this guy
really sounds like the real deal. I’ll
follow you wherever you go. Christ
basically calls him out, really anywhere? I have no home, I don’t know where my
next meal is coming from, I sleep outside on the ground sometimes. I have no true home, I’m homeless, you still
want to follow me? Apparently that is
all Christ had to say, once he heard that he split. When he learned what he had to give up in
order to experience Christ he decided that maybe he really wasn’t ready to go
anywhere. In His book Not A Fan Kyle Idleman ask the question;
“we may be quick to say to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever …” But let’s move
it from the general to the more specific. Where is the one place you find it
most difficult to follow Jesus? If you said to Jesus “Wherever,” where do you
think is the one place he would point to and say, “What about there?” Wherever?
What about in your own home? There is the tendency to carry a cross and follow
Jesus, but before we walk in the door of our own home, we leave the cross on
the front porch. Instead of submitting, you stand up for your rights. Instead
of serving, you sit around. Instead of being patient, you are demanding.
Instead of being encouraging, you are constantly critical. Instead of being a
spiritual leader, you are passive and apathetic in your own home. So what about
there? Wherever? What about at work? At 9 a.m. during the week, you’ll find
many fans getting out of their cars and saying to Jesus, “You wait here. I’ll
be back to get you around 5.” When they clock in to work they clock out of
following: You justify greed by calling it ambition. You rationalize dishonesty
by calling it shrewd business. You stay quiet about your faith at work and call
it being tolerant.”
Are
we really being honest with ourselves when we say I want to experience God in
my Life? If we really want to experience
God we have to let Him into all areas of our lives, we must be ready to go and
show others who God is. That could be in our own living rooms, showing our
wife/husband and kids the love of God. Our
maybe it is at work letting those we work with know who God is through how we
work and treat people, Instead of
talking ill of others we build others up and make sure that they know we go to
church. Instead of looking out for what
we want we ask God what do you want, where do you want me go today and share
your love. Are you ready to show the
world what it means to be obedient to God, and to follow Him wherever He takes
you?
Idleman,
Kyle (2011-06-07). Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus
(pp. 177-178). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
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