But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith . . . —Jude 20
There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman—an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.
Journal DJR
Good morning Lord, This is something I’ve thought about before, that living for you 24-7 is harder, or can take a whole different skill set, than delivering a heroic instant. Like quickly deciding to swim into the surf to save a drowning person being pulled out by rip tide. You dont spend a lot of time analyzing the pros and cons of that. You just decide and act. We can’t just decide and act to live for you 24-7. Or can we?
Actually you can. Your “master decision” is to get and stay connected with me. Then subsequent decisions will follow. Your first decision is to follow me. Just like I called my team.
Matthew 4:19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
What is important is that which empowers those subsequent actions. Is it will power, ego, the desire to look good, appear right, or be in control? … Or is it that you’ve decided to follow me? And by staying connected, you hear my voice?
John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
Stay connected, hear my voice, see my hand at work, and obey what you see and hear. For those who want a formula, That’s a good formula. As you can see it is not a checklist of do’s and dont’s. There is only one do. Get connected and follow me. When you create checklists for yourselves, you are inviting in the enemy to rack you with guilt. You will always be better at making lofty goals than you will ever be at achieving them. Wouldn’t it be better to just follow me?
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