surrender

Do You Love Me More Than These?

July 5, 2021 by Tim Sherfy

Many of us know the story of Jesus restoring Peter to fellowship with Him. We find the story in John 21:15-19, and much has been written and taught about this passage. The first question Jesus asked Peter was, “Do you love me more than these?” He may have been asking whether Peter loved Him more than the other disciples did, or perhaps if Peter loved Jesus more than he did his fellow disciples.

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Another option is Jesus may have been asking Peter if He loved the nourishment of God over bodily nourishment (they were eating breakfast after a night of hard fishing). While people teach the first two more often, I’d like to focus on the third option. I think “Do you love me more than these?” is a good question for us all to ask every day.

Surrender to God

June 17, 2021 by Tim Sherfy

God is not calling us to impurity (I Thessalonians 4:7). Nor is He calling us to be fearful (II Timothy 1:7). Why then do we spend so much of our time pursuing sinful things and living in fear? Is it we do not understand our calling or do we just not care? I’m not convinced there is a third option, and neither of the choices is good! This thought alone should drive us to our knees.

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If we are not living for Jesus, for what then are we living? Perhaps a better way to ask this is if Christ isn’t worthy of our lives, who or what is? Why are we not living our lives running away from sin and full of courage? Both are possible if we would only surrender to God.

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God’s Plans

May 13, 2021 by Tim Sherfy

God’s plans for you will always be bigger than the plans you have for yourself. Don’t waste your life working on your plans. Focus instead on God’s plans. It’s a radical mind-shift to no longer pursue our dreams and goals. For those of us who have spent decades in pursuit of something, it seems unnatural to let it go.

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Perhaps what you’ve been chasing is what God intends for you to do, in which case you can continue the pursuit but with a different motive for your desires. But often, God’s intention for us will differ from our dreams. Our dreams are tainted and influenced by what the world tells us we want. God’s dreams for us are not only bigger but more pure and meaningful. When we spend our lives in pursuit of His plans, our lives will be full of meaning and satisfaction.

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Reorient Your Life

May 10, 2021 by Tim Sherfy

If you want to look like Jesus, love like Jesus, and live like Jesus, you must reorient your life. There’s no way we can continue living as we always have and be a disciple of Jesus. I think this is what so many of us get wrong when we come to Jesus. We see Him as an addition to our lives instead of a complete replacement. There is no negotiation process for our surrender.

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We give up our lives and Jesus takes over. From that moment forward, being a disciple demands you reorient your life to pursue only Jesus and the things that will advance His Kingdom. This will seem like a very large ask unless you are so in love with Jesus that you can’t imagine a moment without Him.

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Impact or Distraction

May 6, 2021 by Tim Sherfy

Everything we think, say, and do will impact others for Jesus or distract them from His truth. Our lives will be all about Jesus or about nothing at all. If we want to impact others for Jesus, we must live like Jesus. We won’t impact them in our power, because we have no answers on our own.

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It is only the blood of Jesus that can cleanse people of their sins. It is only the love of Jesus that can redeem them from their brokenness. So, if we aren’t showing them the love of Jesus and telling them of His sacrifice on their behalf, then we are only distracting them from the truth with whatever else we say or do.