Are you committed?

Jesus said, “Sign on with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God’s works.” (John 6:29 MSG) 

Believe in the one he has sent - be part of his family - this is the offer to us today. So many will still try to do it on their own, even though they have the best offer ever. If someone told you'd they 'pay the price', whatever that price entailed, for something you really needed, would you walk away from the offer? You need a new roof - someone says you can have all the work done at no charge to you, just become an advocate for their services - would you do it? Most likely, you'd accept the offer, becoming one of the very best advocates for their work. Why? You received something that you needed desperately, and the 'work' was all done for you. Well, Jesus offers a gift bigger than a new roof, more important than anything else you ever will stand in need of, and he does so at a 'price' that is already 'paid in full'. Do you accept that gift or reject it? 

The answer to that question will determine the course of your future, from here and now all the way into eternity. All that is asked of us is a commitment to remain in him and he will remain in us. In terms we may understand today, we remain loyal to the one who has done it all for us, becoming his very best advocates here on this earth, encouraging others to accept his gift of salvation - a gift 'paid in full' on our behalf - something we could neither 'afford' nor 'pay off' on our own! A commitment to him means a commitment to a different lifestyle, leading so many to shy away from such a generous gift. Why? They are afraid of change - there is something 'comfortable' about life as they know it now - even when it is not perfect or all that rewarding. So many times, we don't even know how much we need his life-change until we begin to see the results of that change.

Life without Jesus can seem a bit intense at times, but life with Jesus has a different type of intensity. The intensity we experience navigating life on our own is usually because we are living on a purely emotional level. If the emotions are moved in a positive manner, we feel good about our choices. If they are engaged in a negative way, such as with fright or intense doubt, we might not feel very good about the choices being offered to us. With Jesus in our lives, we move out of the realm of living purely by our emotions. We see the 'fickleness' of those emotions and learn that there is a 'bigger picture' that we don't always see when we are relying purely upon emotions to guide us through life. We might be asked to 'trust', but we have had issues with trust for decades. We have relied upon the emotions that are tied to no longer trusting individuals. How well have those emotions really treated you?

If we want to really engage with life as we were created to, we need the free gift Jesus offers. We need his presence within our lives. We need to commit - allowing him to both begin his work within us and then see it through to completion. If that roofer began your roof and you backed out on the commitment mid-roof because the job was 'messy' or 'inconvenient', would that make sense? Not really. So, why would we back off from our commitment to allow Jesus to do what only he can do within us? Just asking.