Staying with Jesus

Let’s start today with a really hard Truth: Getting to God is free…but staying with Him will cost you everything.

If your gut reaction is also resistance, I get it. So before you throw something at me, let’s dive in a little deeper.

Jesus invites us into a journey that will cost us. See, God is not stationary: He's on the move. While Scripture is clear He is on the Throne, He is also up to something in the story of the world. He’s doing things in each of our lives. He is not static. As C.S. Lewis immortalized in The Chronicles of Narnia, “He is not a tame lion.”

Jesus wants us to come with Him. He wants to walk alongside us as we fulfill His Purpose… but He won’t make us stick with Him. Obedience is the process of staying in step with Jesus. It’s crossing the Bridge that Jesus built. Like a young child following dad around the house, we must follow Jesus.

To follow Jesus is to obey Him; to obey Him is to love Him. This is what I mean when I say it will cost you everything. It may come in stages - perhaps at times popularity, money, opportunities, even your lifestyle - or it may come all at once if following Jesus is illegal in your country. Either way, over the course of our lives, we have the choice: reorient our being into one that pleases Him, or one that does what we want. Only by reorienting ourselves do we stay in step with Him. So please, choose wisely. The cost today is worth the reward tomorrow.

Now, this is a difficult and admittedly huge thing to wrap our brains around. We need to begin following Jesus and give Him everything? Before we get overwhelmed, though, let’s identify three key areas to begin orienting ourselves as North Stars on the journey of following Jesus.

1. Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and strength. Ask yourself, Is what I’m doing a result of, or an investment into, loving God with all that I am? Does what I’m doing put Him first?
2. Love your neighbor as yourself. Your neighbor is anyone you interact with. This can be a digital neighbor or a physical one. Does the way I’m treating others, or the results of what I’m doing, resemble the Love of God towards the people on the other end? This includes sharing what Jesus is doing in your life with the people around you. If your neighbor doesn’t know Jesus, consider how to share what Jesus is doing in your life. This is what Love does.
3. Do my work, lifestyle, and/or hobbies enable me to support the two paths above? If so, do I do them well? You don’t have to be a pastor to follow Jesus. In fact, the work you do can and should be sacred even outside of ministry. This can be a career, this can be working in the home, or any number of things. Your vocation can fluctuate, too, and still be God Honoring. The key is to do it well and in a way that supports loving God first and loving your neighbor as yourself. Additionally, the wages you make can be holy and enable you to support the first two points above.