Matthew 8:21,22 “Another disciple said to him, “Lord, let me first go bury my father,” but Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury the dead.”

At first read, this is hard to take. Jesus seems too hard. In context, though, it speaks right to the heart of mankind’s problem—following Jesus is secondary or optional for most people, even most believers.

We are often easily distracted. We’re up and down, hot and cold, in our commitment to lay it all down for our Saviour. We have all kinds of reasons for not really following him and life goes by, years pass. We’ve done good things--worked hard, been busy, raised our kids, helped others, and even served in the church.

One day we wake up and realize that our life’s not been about Jesus at all, but about everything else. Many of our lives haven’t looked that much different from those who don’t believe in Christ. We have simply settled for less than He wanted for us.

Jesus died for the cause. Countless believers have willingly done the same. Most have settled. How about you and me? Will we pay the price of following Christ or not? To get out of the rut requires change—in our schedules, perhaps new friends, new disciplines, new priorities, new ways to use our free time, etc.

Lord, may I gladly pay the price to follow you more closely.

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dave@youronedegree.com

Matthew 7:5 “First take the plank out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Jesus was true holiness and purity of heart. His doctrine was perfect. His knowledge of the Father was precisely accurate and complete. He knew men’s hearts. He walked among people with wrong beliefs, wrong convictions, wrong motives and wrong lifestyles. He spoke the truth, but in love and humility and without pretense.

Fact is, all of us are failing in our Christian walk. None of us has arrived. We all are still falling short of our own standards, not to mention a Christ-like life. When we humbly admit this to ourselves and others, and when we refuse to continue to pretend that we have it together, we can finally really bless and help others. We then can come along side people and walk through the struggles of life together, because we ourselves are depending on His grace, strength, and forgiveness.

In an environment of love and humility people grow better, more quality leaders are developed, and people are shown real Christ-likeness. If we actually live this way, people are drawn to us and they may become open to truth—biblical truth, truth about themselves, true wisdom.

Let’s not waste our energies pretending to have it together. Let’s not take pride in our “right” doctrine or lifestyle. Let’s realize that it is a total miracle, totally grace, that our holy God can use us at all. Thank Him for His love, grace, forgiveness and acceptance, then ask Him to model that to those in our lives.

Lord, please help me grow in the knowledge of the truth, and help me to humbly and lovingly help others do the same.

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dave@youronedegree.com

Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life.”

Many of us have become world class worriers, ignoring this central teaching of Jesus. Worrying is so easy to do because we live in a physical world and we tend to walk by sight and not by faith. All of us worry yet it robs us of peace, stability, joy, and confidence. With countless things we can worry about, how can we make worry a less dominant thing in our lives?

It’s a choice. We can worry or we can trust. He’s aware of the situation or potential harm we or our loved ones might face. He doesn’t ask us to ignore it but to seek and trust him for guidance, protection, provision, strength, etc.

The scriptures give us countless promises that the Lord is in control, knows what to do, He cares about us, has a plan for our lives that He is working, and that He is trustworthy. He will never leave us or forsake us, though sometimes it may seem that He has.

It seems that He’s given us the capacity to worry so that we’ll choose to trust Him. I often come to a point where I will say out loud (when I’m by myself), “I choose to trust you on this matter, Lord. If there’s some action You want me to take in this matter, please show me. Please help me to keep trusting you and to not take this burden back onto my shoulders.” When I do this, I often feel His pleasure, and I often feel the worry subside.

Lord, please grow me to trust you more and more, and to worry less and less.

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dave@youronedegree.com

Matthew 5:44 “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Get serious! No way! Won’t happen! Yeah, right! But they’re such jerks! Sound familiar to how we really respond to this verse?

This instruction by Jesus depends on our really trusting the Father for our well-being, and for our protection. If we are trusting in our ability to defend and protect ourselves, we won’t even come close to loving our enemies. Whether we like it or not, our response to our enemies dramatically reveals our trust or lack thereof.

Our enemies are no problem to God. They are no real threat to his purposes, though they are real and more numerous than we imagine. If we trust Him for our welfare and protection, it frees us up to love and serve others. He will show us when to set up boundaries to unhealthy relationships and how to deal with evil and enemies.

He will help us do this. He was serious when he told us to do it. He knows that if we utilize His strength to help us love our enemies, many people will be drawn to His great and marvelous love and grace.

Lord, please help me never rationalize away this powerful challenge by Jesus. May I fully depend on You to love my enemies, and may that become the way I always live.

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dave@youronedegree.com

Matthew 5:23.24

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.”

Jesus reminds us to settle our accounts with people. If we owe them money, an apology, restitution, an explanation, or whatever, let’s take care of it quickly. If someone has something against us because of something we said or did, we should try to reconcile whenever we can.

Sometime these things may seem petty and don’t deserve our time or attention. One way to test our heart is to honestly ask the Lord what we should do about it and be willing to do whatever he leads us to do.

Most of us will have those relationships in life that we haven’t been able to reconcile, even though we’ve honestly tried. However, we must be people who work hard to have a track record of strong, healthy, honest relationships, not a trail of broken ones.

Lord, help me never have a view that relationships are “disposable,” but may I instead highly value relationships and do what it takes to nurture, protect, and reconcile. May I have the same regard toward people that Jesus did.

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dave@youronedegree.com