I’ve been riding my bike to school this year at least once a week, sometimes twice. The morning ride to school is the best. It’s quiet, even serene at times. The traffic is relatively low and I get to experience the sun rise. The return ride home takes a little more time and a little more will power. It has more elevation gain, more traffic, more heat, and much more headwind. Some days I’m not motivated to ride, but I do it anyway to benefit from the exercise and to free up a family car for someone else to drive.
We should be willing to do worthwhile things even when we don’t feel like it. Hopefully as we take on those tasks our feelings will align and we’ll enjoy the process and its results. That’s how it is with our faith in God. Sometimes we don’t want to do what he calls us to. Maybe because we feel weary, unsure, intimidated, incompetent, or afraid. Other times we don’t want to change or stop doing something when he tells us to, because we enjoy it, it’s expedient, or we don’t see any harm in continuing. In both cases, it comes down to whether we are willing for God to improve our lives. Do we trust his benevolence, wisdom, foresight, and providence enough to obey? Whenever you step by faith in the direction God is leading it’s the right thing to do and he will bless your response.
There are hundreds of examples of this in the Bible: examples of how God calls people, they accept, then he works through them to make their lives better and the lives of those around them. You may have experienced this in your own life too. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). The poor in spirit are humble, gentle, servants, who depend completely on God. Their thoughts and actions center around God more than themselves.
The opposite is also true. People who ignore or oppose God may seem to prosper for a season, but eventually they falter and destroy themselves. Jesus said, “The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12). James, the brother of Jesus, warned and encouraged, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:4-10).
God holds everyone accountable for what they do with the truth–the revelation of himself that he gives them. Jesus is the revelation of God to us. Those who accept Jesus receive the reward of an abundant life with him now and forever. Those who reject him refuse his free gift of true life. They suffer the consequences of their rebellion and separation from God now and in the future. Presently they miss out on all God wants to do for them, in them, and through them. Soon when Jesus returns to earth to judge all evil he will give unbelievers over to their choice of rejecting him. They will spend eternity in unquenchable, fiery torment because they want nothing to do with God. Tragically they will undergo what none of us has experienced or can even imagine–the abysmal void of all God is, like love, grace, kindness, joy, peace, purpose, and hope. Nothing could be worse.
I don’t want to see this happen to anyone. Neither does God. He wants everyone to choose to know him and love him each day. Jesus makes that possible. Jesus taught, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God” (John 3:16-19).
Jesus is God who also became a man to show us the only way to God. He came to earth to tell us, show us, and enable us to to be with God, to be like God, and to do what God does. He invites everyone into his kingdom to reign and rule with him forever. Respond to his call today and every day.
Sometimes if the wind is strong when riding my bike home, I feel like I’m pedaling, but not making any progress. Have you ever felt that way? That’s how Israel was when Jesus was on earth. As a nation they went through the outward religious motions of following God, but due to their stubborn, self-centered hearts they made little progress in intimately knowing him. Don’t be like the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. Jesus loved them, but they rejected him. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’” (Luke 13:34).
The time is coming when Jesus will return. The whole world will acknowledge his sovereignty and glory. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. He will gather believers to joyfully be with him and banish unbelievers to hell. Salvation comes only by yielding your will to his. Embrace the best for you–be willing to trust and obey Jesus today and every day.