Self Abandonment

God, at times asks us to do things that are ridiculous.

Seemingly.

I’m trying to think through all the people in scripture he commands to follow him and abide him… Peter and Paul who he shows how their going to suffer for the sake of the gospel,

“if you follow me, you’re probably going to die… actually you will die if you follow me, no doubt. So you in?” (paraphrase)

How’s that for a pitch, in committing your life to Christ…

Or Noah, who he asks to build an ark, because God’s going to obliterate the world (ie. flood it and kill everyone but him and the few others on the boat).

It’s tough for me in abiding to all that Christ asks, because I’m a pretty simple, practical, logical guy… if it makes sense I do it, if it doesn’t I stay away from it. Like for me, I’ve never owned a credit card… because it doesn’t make sense for me to spend money I don’t have. It’s illogical. Or even parachuting, jumping out of a plane that works perfectly well, that’s stupid, illogical. So I logically don’t do it.

But the thing is I feel God is asking us, at times to do the illogical (and no, to all of you credit card holders who are massively in debt, I don’t think this is your excuse for that), I mean the ridiculously illogical like building an arc, walking on water, following him to point of death, leaving ones family… Or in relating it more so to us today, and situations we’ve experienced… walking up to that stranger in Starbucks and praying for them, confronting issues that are clearly wrong knowing you will not benefit from the confrontation, turning that job down when you have no other options, picking up and moving based off of “God telling you” to move… (insert your own personal situation here).

Jesus says that we must abandon ourselves in faith and trust

Once again, I feel as a blogger, I’m supposed to have the three easy steps in discerning God’s will and call on your life. But sorry to disappoint, I don’t have the 3 step process laid out…

I’ve followed after Jesus and I think I’ve been wrong at times. I’ve not followed after Jesus and I’ve been wrong at times. The comforting thing in this is that there’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness. The apostles took so long to get it, for it to sink in, and throughout the new testament we see them falling, stumbling, struggling, suffering, but in the end they came to the end of their life and all could say with a peace of heart.

“I have finished the race. I have fought the good fight”

What is your fight? What is your call? What do you feel God is asking you to do with not just your life but with this day?