You will recall that yesterday I had a bad day. Today was much better. I spent time with my Wednesday morning prayer group and had lunch with the leader of our next Kairos. That helped because today through them I had more of Jesus. I also read a wonderful column which was a report on Anne Graham Lotz’s recent book, Pursuing More of Jesus, (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2009).
The report listed 13 ways to pursue more of Jesus. I recommend reading the report here which may move you to read the book. I would like to share just one of the thirteen ways with you today.
Go for the maximum, not the minimum. Choose to go after more than just the bare minimum God has to offer you. Make your faith about more than just trying to escape hell and get your ticket punched to heaven. Invite God to completely transform you: bending your will, awakening your conscience, breaking your heart, transforming your mind, overcoming your prejudices, soaring in your spirit, and conforming you into His glorious image.
We all want to escape hell, but our feet begin to drag when we consider inviting God to change us. Why is that? Do we think He will make us worse than we are? Do we believe He will make us miserable and steal our joy? What about “bending” our will? That can’t be good. We worship our free will. See what a wonderful life following our free will has achieved? What could we possibly lose by letting God’s will prevail?
An awakened conscience? Our dulled conscience is already quite a problem. It has plenty of opportunity to convict us. Do we dare ask God to awaken it? To take it to a higher level? What about our mind? A mind is a terrible thing to lose. Wouldn’t we be better thinking His thoughts and leaving our pathetic distractions behind? And prejudices? We love our prejudices. They have been with us so long. They are so comfortable and familiar.
But soaring that sounds great. And being conformed to His glorious image that’s worth something. We just have to decide that to soar that it’s worth surrendering to God’s transforming Spirit.
It will lead to so much more than a better day. It will open the door to a better life.
Nick
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