The general idea I used to have
about walking with God was that if I wanted to follow Him, I must serve Him.
Now based on this ideology, the moment I came to Christ, I quickly started the new
believer’s class and upon graduating from that class I quickly started the
workers training in order to join the church workforce.
Anyone who can still remember how
they felt when they came to Jesus can attest to the zeal and fire to just do
any work that is available in the house of God.
My dad was a pastor in a
Pentecostal church in Nigeria and this resulted in us being the first to arrive
church and often last to leave. This for me was so much fun, it gave me an
opportunity to do so much work for my Father (both heavenly and biological).
As I grew in the faith, whenever
I lead people to Christ, I also encourage them to join a foundation class to
grow them in the knowledge of Christ and introduce them to the workforce. The
idea for me was that proximity to “church” is a great elixir to building a
lasting relationship with God and the level of commitment to working in church a
pointer to one’s level of commitment to God. This ideology however has birthed
so many church workers who in reality are no different from unbelievers…
Then recently, the Lord caused me
to stumble on a scripture that has turned everything right side up for me;
John 12:23-26
23But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour
has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24Most assuredly, I say to
you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone;
but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25He who loves his life will lose it,
and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26If anyone serves Me, let
him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves
Me, him My Father will honor.”
This passage literally left me
shook especially verse 26.
Let us read the portion in bold
highlight again; Vs 26 If anyone serves
Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone
serves Me, him My Father will honor.
Apparently all this while, I had
it backwards. My love for Jesus had driven me to work for Him and was the basis
for me driving others to work within the workforce. And I must state it
categorically at this point that your love for Christ will propel you to
action. However, Jesus was saying that if anyone will serve Him, they fellow
must ‘FOLLOW’ Him.
And as I spent time meditating on
the implication of this, then I understood why Jesus told Martha that Mary had
chosen the more important thing.
Please permit me to liken the
“activities” of working for God in church to the busyness Martha was burdening
herself with whereas the desire in the heart of the Father is that we follow
Him just like Mary did by seating at the feet of Jesus. Jesus said; “where I
am, there my servant will be also”. Remember Mary sat with Jesus while Martha busied herself in the kitchen with 'seemingly' important hosting activities. It is interesting to note Jesus' comments that Mary had chosen the important thing.
Please may I ask you child of God, right
now as you read this, where is Jesus and what is He doing/saying right now? Do
you know? If you don’t, may I admonish that you check your followership status.
It is when you follow Him that
you will know what He requires to be done. He will instruct you Himself and
when He instructs you, He is counting on you to execute to the letter every
instruction you receive. I love the way verse 26 ended. It says; ‘if anyone
serves Me, him My Father will honor’.
This means that God the Father
will honor you only if you serve Christ Jesus. And the only way to serve Christ
is to follow Him. I pray God that He will expand this insight for you.
As if the flogging above was not
enough, He then said to me; Son, Disciples aren’t formed from crowds.
Selah!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment