Will You Follow Jesus?

2 Timothy 4:7-8

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Jordan has been teaching us, on Sunday mornings and recapped in the devotionals from this week, how we are called to follow Jesus.

First, we learned about Paul meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, and how that began a personal relationship with his Savior that would lead Paul to give his life to follow Jesus (both every day and eventually dying for Christ).

Then we learned that following Jesus is personal, but it is not a private or a solo journey. Just as Paul was surrounded by other believers wherever he went, and just as Paul was committed to the churches wherever he went, so should we too always be committed to faithful fellowship with other Christ-followers.

Next we learned that following Jesus is inseparable from telling people about Jesus. It doesn’t have to be too scary, and it doesn’t usually look like going to a different continent, but we must be faithful to Jesus’ commands to share the gospel with others.

Finally, we learned that following Jesus has a very real cost. Following Jesus is not another part of our life or part of who we are, it is our entire life’s focus and the purpose for our entire being. We reveal that we don’t believe this by how we live with Jesus, church, evangelism, prayer, etc as other parts of life that would be nice to add in but aren’t essential.

That is a lot to take in, so I don’t have anything new for you to “learn” today. But I do have a question.

Will you follow Jesus?

Will you strive, every day, to be more obedient to faithfully doing what God has set for you to do. To be a better employee, or boss, husband, wife, son, daughter, friend, neighbor.

Will you treat this life like the fight that it is? The fight against our own sin and the lies of the enemy and the world that would have us treat following Jesus like a somewhat important part of our life, rather than an all-consuming fire.

Will you run this life like a race? With lots of practice and training, taking one step in front of the other even though you can’t see the finish line yet, or will you finish strong if you think the finish line might be getting closer?

Will you keep the faith? Standing firm to what God’s Word teaches and to how it commands you to live?

I cannot answer any of those questions for you, but how you answer those questions is one of the most important things about you.