To answer the Bible’s call to daily dependence on Jesus is to really live. If Jesus isn’t working in and thru you, you’re not experiencing what He wants you to.
If you don’t focus on Jesus, you won’t be able to follow Him. If you do, you won’t want to follow anything or anyone else. You can’t follow the risen Jesus with hollow words. He requires total surrender and dependence.
If you won’t hear directly from Jesus and respond to what He tells you, what you hear in a sermon won’t help you much. Christian beliefs are no substitute for a godly lifestyle. “Be doers of the word, not hearers only.” There’s no reason to claim Christianity, if you don’t want to obey the risen Jesus.
Grace doesn’t replace obedience to the living Jesus. It empowers it.
When the living Jesus is your attraction, all the rest is just distraction. Christianity, without daily dependence on the living Jesus, is just an empty shell.
Discipleship is surrendering to what Jesus wants, not demanding what you want. Biblical Christ-followers live to please God, not to satisfy their own desires. If you don’t align your desires with God’s will, they’ll gradually malign your life. However, if you let Jesus have His way in your thoughts and feelings, He’ll fill you with light and delight!
Get to know Jesus the way you get to your friends, thru relationship, not by hearing lectures about them. To miss out on the joy of heart-to-heart interaction with Jesus, is to miss it all! People who truly believe that Jesus is alive, should continually try to make direct connection with Him.
