What is the end game?
When you are 70 or 80 years old and you look back at your years of following Jesus, what will be of most value to you?
Does Jesus call you to follow Him to make you a better person?
Is that His end game?
Is that why you follow Jesus?
Everyone who I know who follows Jesus has become a better person. I have become a better person. But is that what Jesus had in mind when He calls you to follow?
If so, how do you measure "better"?
Will there ever come a time when you couldn't be "better"?
What if your life ends before you become "better"?
Just those few questions make it obvious the end game for following Jesus is not simply becoming a better person.
Is it about heaven? Is that why Jesus called you to follow?
I know I certainly want to go to heaven and I'm sure you do as well. We just don't want to go anytime soon!
People who faithfully follow Jesus do end up in heaven when they come to the end of the earthly life.
And there is only one man in history who will end up in heaven without following Jesus. That man is the thief on the cross. Everyone else who makes it to heaven will make it because they followed Christ.
But is that the main reason calls us to follow Him?
That's not what the Gospels indicate.
Is follow Jesus about finding a pain-free and problem-free life?
Even a casual reading of the Gospels will make it clear Jesus never had that in mind when He called you to follow. In fact, when He was preparing to send them out on a ministry assignment He made it clear they would have both pain and problems:
“Look, I am sending you out as sheep among
wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. But beware! For you will be handed over
to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. You will stand trial before governors and
kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell
the rulers and other unbelievers about me. When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to
say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking — it
will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. A brother will
betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children
will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. And all nations will hate you because you are my
followers.” Matthew 10:16-22
If following Jesus isn't primarily about being a better person, or about going to heaven or about gaining a pain-free or problem-free life, what does Jesus have in mind when He calls someone to follow.
Here's a hint!
The phrase Jesus used more than any other during His earthly ministry was "fear not".
If you will take the challenge to read through the Gospels I believe that will become quite obvious to you.
Would you like to be fearless?
If following Jesus faithfully over time could help you overcome your fears, would that make you want to follow Him?
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