Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today- how secure is the foundational truth upon which my following Jesus is established?
John 6:26-29 NLT
[26] Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs.”
Observation
Motivation. Why do I “want to be with Jesus?” What is my motivation? How often is it for what I think I can get from him? I can’t divorce my following from the fact that I believe Jesus has the way to abundant life. But then He tells me that is the reason He has come. Am I motivated by who he is – that He is God, or is it more about what I get? If I don’t get what I want do I stop in my following? Do I just want the miracles that serve me?
What is my “because?” In the hardest time of my life where I could have turned to blame God for the life that was playing out. I could have demanded that he ‘give me a miracle that gives me back my cushy life.’ Somehow in this time, I knew that he was all I had to hold onto. He saved me from plummeting into utter despair and from heading down the rabbit hole of running away during that season, not by making everything right according to my idea of rightness, but by holding me through the storm. I saw faithfulness that did not bow to my demands but loved me into a life I never expected. I look back now and see that I did not hold onto Him as much as he held onto me.
My “because” is a bit like Peter’s in John 6:68-69, Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” I have nowhere else to go to find true and lasting life, there is no other framing story that offers life-like the story of Jesus. Also, I am concerned about the man I would be outside of my following. I follow because I like the me I am in the following you.
So here are my “becauses” – you are God, you give me life, you are faithful in my most difficult times, and I love the man I am in the following of you.
Application
My foundation is firmly in my belief that you are God, if all else fails in my eyes you will never change from being God, so upon this “because” alone I will follow. I will not allow the random, uncontrollable life’s circumstances to shape my “because”, I will be shaped by who you are and have always been. Upon this rock alone I will return always. I will not hold my hands out and demand they be filled in return for my following. But I will hold my hands out to receive all the life you desire to place in them, but what is in my hands will not be the foundation of my following.
Response
Thank you that you have given me a deep personal revelation of who you are. Thank you that I have received the call to follow you in a way that I can’t explain, but in a way that I can’t deny. Thank you that you have shared yourself with me in a way that circumstances can never undermine. I will follow you because you are God. In that personal declaration are the words for my life.
Meditation
Meditation truth – “you are God.”
Consider:
What is your “because” for following?
JOURNEY DEEPER