The Next Twenty-Four Hours
I read a statement recently in which the author challenged his readers to envision Jesus walking in their steps for the next twenty-four hours.
What if your schedule was His schedule? Your coworkers were His coworkers? Your children were His children? What if your plans for the next twenty-four hours were His?
And you got to sit on the sidelines.
If this were the case today, would anything be different? Would He respond differently to that trying coworker than you do? Would His voice be quieter than yours is when your child disobeys again? Would you change your evening plans? Would you rearrange your schedule to fit what you think Jesus would be more inclined to do?
The answers to these questions is a good litmus test of how our walk with Jesus is.
The truth is, if you are found in Him--His redeemed soldier--He walks with you throughout every twenty-four hours. The truth is, your schedule is His schedule. Your coworkers and your children are His. Your plans include Him, whether you consciously remember Him or not.
He is with you and me to empower us to respond to our coworkers and to our children with patience, to guide us in our plans, to bless our schedules, to comfort us every step of our 24-hour day.
We forget that when Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches," He was telling us that apart from Him, we can do nothing. Without Him, we can be nothing of significance. Our responses will be fleshy. Our good deeds will be plastic fruit. And our schedules will be vanity.
We aren't trees that can stand alone. He likened us to branches that must be connected to another source.
If you got to sit on the sidelines and watch, what would the next twenty-four hours look like if Jesus' heart walked in your steps?
It would look like a loved and forgiven sinner humbly drawing from a Source of strength, compassion, and goodness that could never be conjured up by the best intentions or the most diligent efforts.
It would be a branch that looks like the vine, yet bearing fruit.
As a branch is dependent on the vine for life, you and I need Jesus.
We rob ourselves of daily blessings when we step into our twenty-four-hour days without realizing His presence or choosing to depend on His strength.
We need His heart to beat in our steps all twenty-four hours of every day.
If we could learn this important truth, what would our lives look like?
His.
Photo by Amos Bar-Zeev on Unsplash
What if your schedule was His schedule? Your coworkers were His coworkers? Your children were His children? What if your plans for the next twenty-four hours were His?
And you got to sit on the sidelines.
If this were the case today, would anything be different? Would He respond differently to that trying coworker than you do? Would His voice be quieter than yours is when your child disobeys again? Would you change your evening plans? Would you rearrange your schedule to fit what you think Jesus would be more inclined to do?
The answers to these questions is a good litmus test of how our walk with Jesus is.
The truth is, if you are found in Him--His redeemed soldier--He walks with you throughout every twenty-four hours. The truth is, your schedule is His schedule. Your coworkers and your children are His. Your plans include Him, whether you consciously remember Him or not.
"He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)This isn't a mystical or but-I-wish-He-would-leave-me-alone type Presence.
He is with you and me to empower us to respond to our coworkers and to our children with patience, to guide us in our plans, to bless our schedules, to comfort us every step of our 24-hour day.
We forget that when Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches," He was telling us that apart from Him, we can do nothing. Without Him, we can be nothing of significance. Our responses will be fleshy. Our good deeds will be plastic fruit. And our schedules will be vanity.
We aren't trees that can stand alone. He likened us to branches that must be connected to another source.
If you got to sit on the sidelines and watch, what would the next twenty-four hours look like if Jesus' heart walked in your steps?
It would look like a loved and forgiven sinner humbly drawing from a Source of strength, compassion, and goodness that could never be conjured up by the best intentions or the most diligent efforts.
It would be a branch that looks like the vine, yet bearing fruit.
As a branch is dependent on the vine for life, you and I need Jesus.
We rob ourselves of daily blessings when we step into our twenty-four-hour days without realizing His presence or choosing to depend on His strength.
We need His heart to beat in our steps all twenty-four hours of every day.
If we could learn this important truth, what would our lives look like?
His.
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Photo by Amos Bar-Zeev on Unsplash
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