Undistractedናሙና

Have you been stalking Jesus? Have you memorized verses and learned the location of every Bible story? Do you know all the Bible names and genealogies? Can you recite what Jesus said to a crowd and then walk a stranger down the “Roman Road”? Have you been in church so long that you forgot how to communicate with the guy at the tire store who would only go if he lost a bet?

Stalking Jesus looks like a bunch of knowledge without an equal portion of action. (Maybe you’re thinking of the book of James here.) At some point in my life of faith I realized I knew plenty of things about Jesus but hadn’t actually done anything with Jesus. I was like a professor who taught the class but wasn’t a practitioner. I knew the verses about the poor and the widows and the orphans. Meanwhile I had never done a single thing to be like Jesus to them. I guess you could say donating money or tithing inched me closer to that. But I don’t see in the Bible where we are exempted from getting involved in these needs because we tossed some money in the direction of the poor. Don’t get me wrong; we need to be stewards of our resources by pouring into what God cares about. However, money is not the same as serving; each of these can be acts of worship if done well, changing your heart in different ways. What I mean is, we need both. We need to spend more time doing the things Jesus told us to do than merely talking about them. In other words, we need to stop stalking Jesus.

Prayer

Father, I want to do more than stalk You. Please help me to know You intimately and follow You in all areas of my life. Amen.