You Were Made for Moreনমুনা

You Were Made For More Than You Realize:

You were made for more than you realize. The fact that you’re starting a devotional in January tells me that you know this–or at least suspect it. But I’m guessing you don’t know just how much more there is for you.

Just before Jesus left his disciples, we are told in the gospel of John that Jesus washed their feet, and then gave them promises about the future. One of those promises was that they were going to do even greater things than he had done.

"Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

Imagine how incredulous the disciples must have been hearing this. How do you outdo Jesus? Turning water into wine would be hard enough, much less the part where he canceled sin and death through his death and resurrection.

There’s a lot of speculation as to what Jesus meant when he said “greater things.” Some people have suggested that we will do a greater number of things than Jesus has done. That collectively, we would feed more mouths than He did during his time on earth, that we will heal more sick people overall. Fair enough. But the problem with that reading of the text? The Greek. The original language was more open-ended. The Greek simply says we will do “mega” things than Jesus did while on earth. Mega, meaning great or large. Mega, meaning more than we thought. Mega, more than Jesus did.

So what exactly does “more” look like and how do we begin to live it out?

Because we interview top talent for a living, we have been able to see what the best of the best have in common. We’ve done a whole lot of research about what the top performers and most fruitful laborers for the church have in common. We studied 30,000 people who are successfully living “mega,” who have found the more Jesus spoke of. We discovered 12 habits that all of these rare individuals (we call them unicorns) seem to practice.

We noticed two very particular findings:

One, the habits our unicorns practiced were very common among them, and exceedingly uncommon among the rest of us. Two, we noticed that if you look at each of these habits, they are particular manifestations of Jesus' commandment that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us. In short, making your life matter more, be noticed more, and be more fruitful all depend on one simple practice.

Intentionally treating others well.

Over the next 12 days, you will have a chance to study what each of those particular outplays of the Great Commandment mean. We will explore each habit through the lens of a biblical character, through an episode in Jesus’ own life, and then through self-reflection. If you follow each of these 12 days of devotion, and apply these habits to your life, you will stand out more than you ever thought you could. You will bear more fruit than you ever thought you could. You will be more than you ever thought you could be.

To start, let’s focus today on asking God for a bigger vision for our lives. I’m always amazed at how many times God asks us to “look up,” and how often “lifting our eyes,” leads to a bigger vision of life.

Let’s use David’s prayer and Jesus’ promise to ask God for two weeks of transformation.

“Lord, you said we would do greater things than you. That’s hard to believe, and means I need a bigger vision for my life. So like David, I will lift my eyes to the hills. I am looking up and asking you to expand my vision for this year, for my life, and for greater things. Do what you promised, Lord Jesus. Amen.”