I was forty years old when I discovered the Gospel of Christ as an Easy Yoke and the Lord inflamed my heart with his love! I learned to live with the blessed awareness that the risen Christ is standing beside me, smiling and opening his arms to me!
This is true for you, right now.
“Come to me,” the Radiant Son says to us. “Follow me and I will give you life — real life, my life in God, abundant and eternal living, more vitality than you could imagine, more joy than you can contain, the peace that you’ve always longed for.”
If only we would let Jesus ravish our hearts! If only we would appreciate the glorious gift of Christ crucified and risen. If only we would see that awaiting us right now is the opportunity of a lifetime: to be Jesus’ apprentice, to bring our lives into his classroom, to make our world his kingdom, to shine his light to people all around us.
When we behold in our hearts the goodness and beauty of Christ then we will be captivated by him! We’ll leave behind anything that distracts us. We’ll lay down our burdens. We’ll take his hand and follow him wherever he leads. Indeed, person after person in the New Testament chased after Christ.
People shouted out at the top of their lungs and made fools of themselves to get Jesus’ attention. They pushed their way through crowds or crawled in the dirt and between people’s legs to touch him. They walked across deserts, sat in the hot sun for hours and hours, and skipped meals to listen to him teach. They left their businesses and their families to follow him. They endured ridicule and abuse to be his disciples. They jumped out of trees, ripped the roofs off houses, and gave up their life savings to fall at his feet and worship him!
How will you give your heart afresh to Jesus? How will you step out of your comfort zone to grow in your apprenticeship to Christ the Lord?
We talk about “giving up everything to follow Jesus,” but we need to start small — like giving up a little pride to lift our hands in worship or talk with a stranger while praying for a natural opportunity to bring the name of Jesus into the conversation.
A little thing I’ve done is to literally skip with joy that I get to be one of Jesus’ students! Some people think I’m crazy. One day I got an email from one of the readers of our weekly Soul Shepherding Devotional email. She wrote:
I like the way you want us to ‘delight’ in the Lord like a ‘child,’ as I’ve always felt this is the way God would love us to approach him. But I don’t know if I would ‘skip’ like a child and then say, ‘I am the disciple Jesus loves!’ I think my roommate just might call the ‘men in the white coats’ on me!
I replied: “Bring on the white coats! I’ll be crazy for Jesus!”
This blog is excerpted from Bill’s book Your Best Life in Jesus’ Easy Yoke
Please enjoy, Three Ways to Grow, a free PDF Resource to go with this series.
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Listen to this week’s SoulTalk: Gain a vision for training with Jesus for greater joy and productivity. In this episode, Bill and Kristi, along with pastors from Saddleback Church will help you develop a vision for stepping into Jesus’ easy yoke and seeing development in all areas of your life. Jesus brings ease into all areas of life–experience it for yourself!
