Following Jesus in Real Life

Following Jesus in Real Life

following Jesus in real lifeFollowing Jesus is my heart’s desire. Now that I’ve been waiting for God’s guidance for quite some time, I’ve caught myself wondering what I’ve been doing wrong. Maybe I could have done this and that. The list gets very long very quickly. And it gets me off the track very efficiently. Following Jesus in real life is more difficult than we’d like.

You see, when you heart is at the right place, when you’ve surrendered yourself to Jesus, God will take care of the rest. We are not to focus on ourselves – our failings or inabilities – but we are to focus on God and his amazing ways. God can do anything. Our task is to abide in him and praise him all the days of our lives. Even if that’s all we do, we have succeeded wonderfully. Because that’s all there is to following Jesus.

Life is full of difficulties, interruptions, and changed plans. How we handle them is how we follow Christ. Do we try to deal with them on our own or do we place them before God as an offering? Because that’s the way to go. That’s the way to live out faith in our every day lives. That’s the way to let God do what he wants to do in your life.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
(romans 12:1, MSG,*R

In some ways, we are just asked to make room for God and stay out of his way while he is creating good things of our lives. We are, of course, invited to participate in what he does but we are not to lead but follow him. There is a huge difference between these two ways to live. The first one is the way to stress and frustration. The second one is the way to peace and rest in the midst of chaos. Well, I choose the number two; I choose following Jesus. How about you?

I think the choice is pretty obvious. And, in our head, we all want that. When the sun is shining we all want that. But the test comes when a storm is brewing. The test comes when we are asked to wait for God’s timing. Do we force our way when God seems to do nothing? Or do we bring our problems to God and trust him to take care of them?

It does take practice. More than we’d like. But practice makes perfect. And blessedly we are not on our own in this either. God is right along side of us if we want the help. Practice obedience in small things, then the bigger things do not intimate us. Because it’s not us versus problems, it’s God versus problems. And when we remember that and the fact that God is almighty, we naturally keep humming ‘Hallelujah’ while following Jesus all the days of our lives.

 

Gracious God,
You’ve given us everything we need to handle difficulties:
you’ve give us your son Jesus Christ.
Help us to remember to focus on you
and not on our problems.
Show us how to rest in you
in the middle of chaos.
Enable us to let go of control
and follow you all of our days.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: Are you following Jesus in real life? How does it work out for you?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim as you continue following Jesus all the days of your life!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]

Image courtesy Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up today with Faith-filled Fridays, Five Minute Friday, and Faith Barista.

7 thoughts on “Following Jesus in Real Life

  1. All too often I am not a faithful follower, but I WANT TO BE. And that keeps me coming back to His feet in repentance and faith. I’m so grateful for His grace and mercy. I’m your neighbor at #FMFparty.

  2. Yes I’m following Jesus in real life. I’m not faithful, He is always!! Thanks for encouraging me with this post today! Blessed to found your blog! Now following you.

    W/Love,
    Tayrina from TGAWrites

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