“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” C.S. Lewis

Recently, a wonderful friend of mine said, “In my quiet time with the Lord, I was praying about the rest of my life. I had already been retired for a couple of years when I told the Lord I wanted to finish my life strong with Him. I wanted to live in His presence like I’d never done before.”

He then told me what he heard. “Would you give up all your woodworking and iron sculpting tools? Your knife and jewelry making equipment? Take all those specialty beverages you’ve been storing and give them away, leaving alcohol behind?”

In other words, the Lord was telling him, “Will you leave behind what you can’t take forward, in order to gain something that could never be taken from you?”

Keep in mind, none of the things were sinful. In fact, he felt the Lord’s presence while doing them. I know artists who have done the same by laying down their music careers in order to go to places to reach people for Jesus who would never come to their shows.

Both my friend and these artists wanted the best, becoming more like the Savior they loved. And, the Lord knew that the good things they were doing would hinder their progress in becoming like the best – Himself.  

Have you been struggling with leaving something good behind in order to become more like The Best – Jesus? Ask your Lord for the necessary faith to leave that something behind to become Someone you can’t with them – Himself.  

“Faith never knows where one is being led, but loves and trusts the One leading.” Oswald Chambers

You just wonder what it took for fishermen, who owned their businesses, to leave it all behind in order to follow this new Rabbi Yeshua.

Jesus, walking beside the Sea of Galilee, saw Peter and Andrew fishing. He said, “Follow Me.” Scripture says they immediately left their businesses and followed. The same was true for their business partners, James and John (Matt. 4).

Luke gives insight into their decision (Lk. 5). He records that Peter let Jesus use his boat to give a message. Afterwards, Jesus tells Peter to recast his net. Though Peter didn’t think anything would happen, he still recast.

Peter, along with Andrew, James and John, had a God encounter. Peter cast his nets. Jesus overwhelmed him with fish. Peter, Andrew, James and John could see the fish, smell the fish, touch the fish, hear the fish and quite possibly taste the water from all the fish splashing around!

There was something different about this Rabbi, whom God had just performed, in their worldview to that point, a miracle. Would they enter a new phase of their lives – catching souls? They did so with no guarantees.

I recently read, “The disciple is always ready to take the next step, even if it costs them everything they’ve gained to date. If there is anything that characterizes Christian maturity, it is the willingness to become a beginner with Jesus again and again. It’s the willingness to say, ‘I’m scared to death, but I’ll go with you Jesus.’”

Leaving our comfort zone is truly scary! Yet, based on what you’ve already seen God do; are you willing to trust Him to show you more about who He is by leaving something behind?

Healthy relationships grow with time. It’s the same with Jesus. He is asking you to follow Him into a new phase of your walk to love and cherish Him more, even if it is a little scary at the moment.

The Savior lifts us up to keep moving forward with Him.

David was a man of major contrasts. On the one hand, scripture calls him a man after God’s own heart. On the other, he made some mind-boggling choices.

One of those choices was to have sex with another man’s wife and then have her husband killed. He didn’t get away it. God sent Nathan to tell him the consequences of this choice – one of his own son’s would publicly sleep with his wives.

This happened. Absalom, third in line to the throne, rebelled against David and became the instrument of David’s punishment while David ran for his life.

David writes about this in Psalm 3. Many at the time thought Absalom would prevail against his dad. Yet, David writes that his trust was in the LORD who would deliver him.

This deliverance comes with a very interesting phrase in 3:3, “lift up my head.” Lift means to take a face that is looking down by the chin and lift it up so one could look into the eyes of the one lifting it. In David’s case, his face was looking down due to his shame induced choice but was lifted up by the LORD.

In our process to become like Jesus, we will make our fair share of choices that we all regret. Yet, Jesus is LORD. And through His death on the cross, He lifts up our chin so we can look Him in the eye again.

Don’t waste time on shame!! It doesn’t any good. It only keeps you looking down at the very things that brought you shame in the first place.

So, put down your “beat-me” stick. Let shame move you to ask for Jesus’ forgiveness, which came at the cross. Jesus will then lift up your chin, look you square in the eyes and say, “I love you. I’ve got it covered. Now, get up and walk with Me again.”

Jesus is your head lifter. Let Him like He did David.

Praising God is one of the greatest acts of faith based worship.

What in the world was Paul thinking? He’d been beaten. Was in chains inside a Roman jail. And he’s praising God in the midst of it all. What?

Here’s what Paul knew – the future. He knew there was a certain Philippian correctional officer who was ripe for the harvest. And the only way to reach him was to be inside the jail.

Paul could have avoided all of this by using his get out of jail free card – his Roman citizenship. You can’t beat or jail a Roman without a trail, which Paul didn’t get.

Why didn’t Paul exercise his legal rights? To fulfill His God given purpose of sharing the gospel where others had never gone before.

Paul is not only in this officer’s jail, but he’s also sharing about Jesus through praising God. After a little cage rattling, this correctional officer and his entire family came to faith in Jesus.

Now think about this. God has told us the future as well. He will change our lives to be like Jesus. It can occur today and tomorrow, but definitely when we step into eternity (1 John 3:2).

Therefore, we should praise Him by faith in the midst of the change process, no matter how difficult it may be or where we find ourselves. We praise Him by faith because we know He will finish the job.

We often think of praising God after He’s done something. This is true. But it’s also true that we should praise Him in the midst of the process knowing that our current struggle will not last forever.

Yes, life-change is difficult, especially the longer the “flesh” or old thinking/brain wiring has been around. Yet, our lives will be changed! So instead of a dour look, we should praise Him by faith in the moment with a smile.

Let your face know that God is at work within you. Praise by Him faith.

“We must allow the Word of God to correct us as much as we need it to encourage us.” AW Tozer

Recently, I had to go through a very painful correction. At first, it made me angry. I felt this person was attacking my integrity. But in reality, the Lord was showing me a blind spot, which I obviously didn’t see. Why? It was in my blind spot!

This correction was absolutely needed for me to draw closer to Jesus. Would I have rather the conversation been less painful? Yes. But would I have listened to the much-needed correction without it? Probably not.

We live in a fallen world where the information that makes its way into our brains either lines up with the truth or it doesn’t. All lies, though, if allowed to remain, will eventually cause pain. It doesn’t matter whether they are big or small, or how or who put them there either. If left intact, they will lead to behaviors (aka sin) that will bring great discomfort, if not today, definitely tomorrow.

Once we feel the pain (“How dare you talk to me that way!”) of our wrong heading, however, we have a choice to make. We can either follow the Spirit’s conviction, weed out the lie through putting in and acting upon the truth He gives us, which brings joy, peace and the rest of the fruits of the Spirit.

Or, we can ignore the pain and experience the negative effects of our broken choices (guilt, shame, ruined relationships, etc.). The issue then becomes: Will we allow the pain to drive us toward Jesus?

Quite frankly, if I hadn’t been confronted in the manner I was, I would have continued in the way I was going. Why? I wouldn’t have known I was in great need of a course correction!

Life without the pain of correction would just be plain miserable. Though we don’t like the correction, our loving Father uses it to draw us closer to the One who can save us from a lot of heartache.

Jesus is the author of life where the good stuff is held for those who go His direction.