Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus
Are you still waiting for divine revelation to strike like lightening before you engage in building the Kingdom of God here on earth? If so, I have some great news for you. That revelation occurred 2,000 years ago when God walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ. You and I have been commissioned since the day we committed our lives to Jesus. The time to get started is now. No more excuses, no more rationalizations. You are equipped to begin right now.
“Mediocrity is the signature of chronic inconsistency” writes Jim Collins in his latest book, “Great by Choice”. This should serve as a stinging rebuke to most of us as we consider our walk with Jesus. The follow through on our devotion to Him is pathetic, as evidenced by the condition of the world around us. We long to make an impact for Christ, but we sputter and hesitate, stuck in an endless loop of starting and stopping. New Year’s resolutions to read our Bible and pray every day are forgotten by February, and we disengage our commitment to the poor as soon as we hit a rough financial patch. The problem is we lack the disciplined consistency to truly follow Jesus.
Bill Hybels recently concluded a leadership event with a challenge to those in attendance. He read a prayer he encouraged us all to pray for the next 30 days. You can download the prayer by clicking here. Essentially the message is to commit yourself each day to fulfilling your purpose in God’s plan. You’ve probably prayed similar prayers at various stages of your life. It has almost become rote to commit our lives and our hearts to Christ each day. However, some of the other specifics of this particular prayer challenged me to consider how I live my life with a new perspective. Three of the commitments that have changed the way I approach my day are pledging to use my talents, energy, and creativity to fulfill my role in building His church.
We all have things we have been putting off, tasks that never seem to get done. Generally the things that get pushed aside are things we know we should do but are also things that will require some sort of sacrifice from us. Our tendency is to lean into things that don’t require much time or effort, but shy away from the duties that eat into our “me time”. While this may never be a great habit for getting things done, the habit of procrastination becomes absolutely lethal when applied to our spiritual lives. With no guarantee of another breath, it is imperative we seek Jesus In this moment and do whatever he tells us to do… right now.
At a recent conference, I heard Craig Groeschel say, “If you’re not dead, you’re not done”. Many of us think that we have missed the boat, missed our calling, and missed our opportunity to do great things for the Lord. We spend half our lives trying to determine what God has called us to do, and then spend the second half lamenting the fact we didn’t discover it earlier. The Bible contains examples of God’s servant’s that were young, middle-aged, and elderly. It makes no distinction between age and ability to be used for the purposes of God. I think our reasoning of being too old is nothing more than an excuse for our inactivity.