Ezra climbs up steps and onto furniture easily at nearly nine months but he needs a spotter. He doesn’t think twice about abruptly turning or plunking down regardless of what’s behind him. He’s very cautious cruising on level ground. He carefully squats until his bottom finds the floor, but today he pulled himself up onto the ledge of the sandbox using the window ledge of the playground where he tottered momentarily before one foot slid back while the other slipped forward. Thankfully I was sitting next to the sandbox and scooped him up before he fell.
Nothing slows him down for long. Now that he’s figured out how to be mobile, he’s all in. Failed attempts don’t keep him from trying again and again and again. He is determined to walk and soon. He’s literally hardwired for this. He wasn’t born knowing how to walk, of course, but no one had to tell him he’s ready now. He’s in constant motion, even in his sleep. It’s all systems go, full tilt. Every follower of Jesus could take a lesson from him.
“Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ.
Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do.
And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God.
Good work will get you good pay from the Master, regardless of whether you are slave or free.”
Ephesians 6:5-8 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/eph.6.5-8.MSG
When Paul dictated these words, he spoke with slaves in mind. Some people were property and though slavery was more accepted in his culture than in ours, still his hearers would have cringed at his words. No matter who’s giving the orders, you’re really serving God. This is akin to Jesus’s command to go the extra mile. (Matthew 5:41) This cuts quickly to the heart of our motives. I’m supposed to be so enamored with Christ, so fixated on Him, so overwhelmed by His love and forgiveness, by how He humbled Himself and bore the sin of the world, my sin, that I never stop to weigh the cost of serving another.
“I admit that I haven’t yet acquired the absolute fullness that I’m pursuing, but I run with passion into his abundance so that I may reach the purpose for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me to make me his own.
I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead.
I run straight for the divine invitation of reaching the heavenly goal and gaining the victory-prize through the anointing of Jesus.”
Philippians 3:12-14 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/php.3.12-14.TPT
“For what makes a distinction between you and someone else?
And what do you have that grace has not given you?
And if you received it as a gift, why do you boast as though there is something special about you?”
1 Corinthians 4:7 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1co.4.7.TPT
“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.
Saving is all his idea, and all his work.
All we do is trust him enough to let him do it.
It’s God’s gift from start to finish!
We don’t play the major role.
If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing!
No, we neither make nor save ourselves.
God does both the making and saving.
He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”
Ephesians 2:7-10 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/eph.2.7-10.MSG
When we are in Christ, we are meant to be living all in each moment of every day. We’ve been entrusted by God with the secrets of the kingdom. We’re heirs together with Christ and all that is His will be ours. This knowledge is hardwired into us by God’s Spirit and becomes our greatest motivation.
“For we must all stand before Christ to be judged.
We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others.
God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.
Either way, Christ’s love controls (compels) us.
Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.
He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves.
Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.”
2 Corinthians 5:10-11, 14-15 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.11.NLT
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/gal.2.20.NKJV
“Jesus said to all of his followers, “If you truly desire to be my disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace my ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to my ways.”
Luke 9:23 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/luk.9.23.TPT
“He who did not spare [even] His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?”
Romans 8:32 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/rom.8.32.AMP
Since I have nothing that I have not received from God in Christ, since I am nothing apart from Him, I should be using whatever I’m doing right where I am in this moment for God’s glory, no matter what it is, no matter who’s calling the shots, remembering my real Master is Christ.
I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.
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