Who Is This All For?

This is a part of my story. It’s not the whole story, but it’s a part of it.

I was brought up in a loving Christian household. Both my parents are devoted Christians. A lot of my upbringing was shaped by practices and behaviours learnt from their conduct at home and the cultural expression of the church in which I grew up. The thing about behaviour, though, is that in as much as it can be imitated the underpinning values and beliefs are not necessarily implanted. That was definitely the case for me.

It feels like I never really grew to love Jesus until years after I got baptised. And by baptism I am referring to full adult immersion baptism. This is usually the one that takes place because of you conscious recognition of the good news and a response to repent and believe in Jesus. I don’t dispute whether I meant it when I did it. I just look back and see key points in life where it became ever clearer to me what it was to respond to the gospel with repentance and faith. Not just that but a desire to follow Jesus.

That desire to follow Jesus puts us in the light. The thing about the light is that it shows the Way and the obstacles to that Way. Often the greatest obstacles are not beyond or external to you, but within you. Wrestling with the sinful nature to kill it becomes all the more acute recognising how deeply ingrained it is in aspects of life.

Even now, when I would say I’ve never loved Jesus more than I do now, I am very consciously aware of how easy it is for me to turn from him and indulge in the sinful nature. Walking in the Spirit is a daily, hourly and minute-by-minute commitment. The number of times I have to consciously yield myself to God and remember that I am His and He is Lord of my life, highlights how severe and intense the battle is.

That’s just me in myself – then there’s the area of practising what it is to love Jesus in my relationships with others. Other people who are similarly engaged in their own internal issues. Some more consciously aware of the battle than others. Loving them as Jesus calls me to love them again requires a great deal of sacrificing of self to follow Jesus.

Irritation and annoyance with the flaws of others can sometimes set up barriers to effectively engaging with them. For example you know that someone has a sinful approach in some area of life, it’s not just an issue of highlighting it for their attention and expecting instant change before expressing impatience at the lack of change. Yet that’s exactly how I’ve behaved before. Yet time after time, Jesus shows me that is not how He behaves with me. Neither is it the love He expects me to extend to others. Then there’s that challenge in how I relate to others – who am I doing it for?

Valuing people for who they are and how they are made in the image of God and are worthy of the extension of respect, grace and mercy is something we do because of Jesus. We do it for Jesus. We do it in response to experiencing that from Jesus. If it is not done for Jesus, then there’s great room for error. That focus on Jesus and engaging with Him in the light of all He has done to love us, serve us and then equip us to do likewise, makes all the difference in the world. Being filled with His Spirit precisely gives us all we need to be able to live as He requires and done for Him, because we love Him.

That’s an ongoing work in my life. I want to grow more and more in knowing Jesus and thus live a life pleasing to Him because of Him.

When the end for me comes, I would like that to be my whole story.

(Photo by Christopher Sardegna on Unsplash)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden