Making room for Jesus

Making room for Jesus.  (After Easter)

Hello. 

You put on a nicer shirt than normal to go to church, you sang more songs, the service was crowded, but truthfully--for you, Easter got here a little soon this year.  You really hadn’t had time to adequately prepare your heart—to really take time and remember all Jesus went through, all he suffered, so that you could truly feel the exhilaration of the empty tomb.  Happy Easter.  ‘Happy Resurrection Day!’ some folks are wont to say.  It was good to feel close to God, wasn’t it?  The question is—can you stay there?  And, how can you get even closer? The first thing that comes to mind is ‘Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.’ James 4.8  Really?

But I am wondering, Friend… do you have any room in your life for God?  When you decide to get physically fit, you have to make room in your life for exercise and also choose to give attention to proper nutrition as well . . . and the same thing applies if you want to get spiritually fit.  You must make room.  I mean, really, were you thinking you would invite God “in” and give him what—a little corner of yourself?  ‘Come on in, God, change me, grow me—I’ve given you this little bit of myself . . . so come on, perform—‘ That’s what so many of us do, and then we wonder why nothing really seems to change.

You see, practicing spiritual disciplines—like Bible study, even praying in earnest--is great, but I think it would be easy to miss that what God really wants is our heart.  He is not really interested in just a little corner; he wants all of us.  Maybe we fall backward in our spiritual walks because we either fail to give him our whole hearts from the ‘get go’, or we just keep knocking him out of the way, and putting ourselves—our wills and wants--back in charge. 

Several times in the last year we have discussed the problem with contemporary Christianity—it just is not very Christ-like, in many respects.

I think that is because we Christians are not a terribly committed lot.  [note to self: the first Christians did not name themselves; people who knew them gave them that name because they were little Christs—that is to say, they lived like Jesus . . .  I’m wondering who watches my life, and says, ‘she is Christ-like’ – and you?  Do people observe your life and know you follow Jesus?  Just a thought-] We are committed to the extent that it suits us, maybe to what is visible to others, but not to where it would inconvenience us or require too much of us.

Jesus taught that following him would be costly; he said we would have to ‘deny’ ourselves.  (I do not do that very well.)   Jesus did not teach that being a Christian would make us popular or prosperous.  So should you choose to just dabble in Christianity that is okay, but honestly, that is all it will be—just okay.  Besides, I’m not sure how interested God is in the fragmented self we offer; after all, God sent the MOST he had,

the MOST he could give,

the BEST he had . . . his one precious Son, our risen Lord.

How ‘you doin’?  How much room are you willing to give Jesus in your life?  How much of you are you willing to commit?

Christine

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