When we look at the world we can get overwhelmed by its problems. We often are left wondering what to do, and quite simply often don’t know where to look or act first. When it becomes too hard we can be tempted to “put our our heads in the sand” and pretend all the problems, and pressures aren’t there.
We can ask “how do we do this, how do we let out light shine, how do we help people when the need is so huge”?
Ever since the devil came into the picture there has been suffering, death, and every evil work (Genesis 3:6). However Jesus also came to deliver the solution, the answer. He came to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus didn’t compromise his message for the masses, he didn’t chase after the applause or approval of the crowd. Quite often He even offended his followers, and was left looking at his closest friends saying “are you going to leave me too?” (John 6:67)
“The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1 John 3:8) Yet the effects of His ministry – His message, His miracles, His sacrifice, and His resurrection have shaped and changed the universe like no other. He unashamedly stated “ I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, so follow me.” (John 14:6)
If we want to live authentic, real, meaningful Christian lives we’ve no other choice but to live it the way Jesus did.
We can’t love, we can’t share the good news, we can’t be about heaven’s business unless we recognize and acknowledge that Jesus is “The Way”, and then choose to do things His way. If we try to do heaven’s work in the world’s system, which happens to be the devil’s system, we will never walk and minister the freedom, goodness, joy, and love that we see in Jesus. Why because the world’s system is toil, it’s performance and success oriented. It’s “What can I do, achieve, and gain?” Rather than a realization of “I can do nothing, but in and through me Jesus can do everything.”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. (Isaiah 55:8)
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
What did Jesus do? He did everything in relationship. He only did, and said what he heard the Father in heaven saying. (John 12:29) He taught His disciples in relationship. He ate with them, laughed and cried with them, He was never impersonal or stand offish. He embraced lepers as he healed them, blessed little children, honored men and women alike, loved and rescued the prostitutes, ate with the outcasts, making them no longer outcasts, and wasn’t afraid to be seen with any of them.
Today when there is often so much to be overwhelmed about, and you may be thinking what am I supposed to think or do? Don’t be afraid and put off, or simply put things in the too hard basket. Take your cue from Jesus, who wasn’t afraid to say “I am the way”; He knew His way worked. It worked over 2000 years ago, it’s worked throughout the ages where people have chosen His Way over any other, and it will still work today for you and I.
Start personally, start one at a time, start by simply being a blessing to the one you see. They may not look the same as you, they may not talk the same, or even agree with your beliefs or values. But that didn’t stop Jesus and it can’t stop us. It can’t, not in this hour when the world desperately needs to see that Jesus is, and will always be “The Way”.
Prayer: Lord I ask that you help me to open up my heart to all those around me. Teach me how to hold them in my heart, so that I can share your love and life with all those you bring near. In Jesus
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