Daily devotion – no casual relationships with Jesus
Mat 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
As I was preparing for today’s devotion, I noted my desk calendar was still stuck on January 1…! Turning the pages over to today’s date as I write this devotion , January 4, there I read a magnificent statement, so simple, so true yet so overlooked for those of us who name the name of Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
The statement is a follows – “If Christianity is important at all, then it is ALL important! If Christianity is anything at all, then it is EVERYTHING. Christianity is either the most vital thing in your life, or it isn’t worth bothering with!”
A young man came up to Jesus and said he really wanted to part of what Jesus was offering, he wanted to follow Jesus. Read what Jesus said to this young man with great ambition.
Matthew 19: 16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
18 He said to Him, “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
When a young couple marry, neither of them would be accepting of the service to proceed if either the bride or the groom said, “I want to marry you, but I still want to live as a single person, doing what I like to do when I want to. I will give you part of me but not all of me.”
Yet so many of us are heading into 2024 wanting Jesus to accept this arrangement with us. We have even heard people say such things that indicate such like, “I am a Catholic, but I am a lapsed Catholic.” Or “I believe in God, but I worship Him in my own way.”
Imagine standing at the alter with a person across from you on your wedding day and they said, “I want to marry you but I will treat our marriage arrangement in my own way that suits me.” Or, “I will be your husband – wife, but I don’t want to stay in the same house with you each day or be part of your life all the time.”
Absurd? Yes, but how often to we treat our Lord sadly with a part time, casual, self-suiting relationship?
“If Christianity is important at all, then it is ALL important! If Christianity is anything at all, then it is EVERYTHING. Christianity is either the most vital thing in your life, or it isn’t worth bothering with!”
Jesus said you are either for Me or you are against me – let us in 2024 have our relationship with Christ be everything we live for. Because that is the only relationship Jesus will accept.
This coming Sunday morning we have Holy Communion, and we begin a new series in the Book of Genesis.
Sunday night at 6:00pm we return for worship and the teaching series through the Book of 2 Samuel.