Day 3: You Being

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Following Jesus first is a combination of being with Jesus and doing the things He asks.  

If I asked my son to clean his room and he came back with any of the following responses a few hours later, I think we would all agree he missed my point.

“Hey Dad, I memorized what you said. I can say ‘Go clean your room,’ in Greek: ‘Pao Katharos sas domatio’. My friends and I are going to gather together every week and study what it would look like if I went and cleaned my room.” 

All I wanted was for him to go clean his room. So why do we think this kind of thinking and talking is going to work with Jesus? 

Some people are better at being. If this is you, you will probably like spending a lot of time praying in a quiet place. You may enjoy going to church.  You crack open your Bible every day or have a massive streak on YouVersion this very moment! You feel good about yourself after you have your quiet time. But nothing happens beyond that.

On the flip side, others enjoy doing. I more naturally fall into this camp. But if we don’t spend the time being, our doing won’t be as productive. If we don’t spend the time resting in God and learning from Him, we’ll quickly burn out, or we will be doing things out of the wrong motivation.

Before we do what Christ asks us to do, we need to be with Him. That’s what this first target is all about: Spending time with God just to be with him. 

Out of the five targets in Red Letter Challenge, Being is the most critical target because everything we do comes out of our being. Our doing flows out of our being. 

• When I commit to a community of believers, they can help keep me accountable in my journey with Christ. 
• When I read the Bible, it doesn’t take long for it to manifest itself in me, and pretty soon, it becomes like a fire shut up in my bones that I cannot contain. I just have to share it!
• When I pray, there’s a peace that comes over me. I can’t even explain it.
• When I spend some solitude with Jesus, I am more sensitive to the promptings of Jesus. 
• When I come to church and worship Christ, it gives me the fuel to keep going in life.

Jesus compared following Him to training for a race or competition. He says to train ourselves for godliness. After God gave us His very best, I want to run the fastest and farthest that I can for Jesus. By practicing the habits of Jesus, I’m positioning myself to do just that! I hope you are too! 

Challenge

Using yesterday’s challenge as a guide, pick one of the 5 ways you can practice BEING with Jesus today. Try to choose the one that is most challenging for you: 1) commit to community, 2) study scripture, 3) prioritize prayer, 4) seek solitude, or 5) choose church. Share on social media using #RedLetterChallenge which habit you practiced.