Recently, I’ve been thinking about all the years that I wasn’t following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. I was a Christian but I wasn’t living the life that he had called me to live.
I was going my own way and that means that I was following the path of another leader. Looking back, I can see all the times that I strayed and all the catastrophes that came about because of it.
It was all due to my willful tendencies. I wanted to do what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to be accountable to anyone but me. I was behaving as if I had never met the Savior and accepted his gift of forgiveness and eternal life.
Each time, I was pulled back from the brink and turned my life back to his way. I am ever grateful for his being faithful when I was not.
The thing that I had never contemplated before was what the effect of my sin had on other people. How many individuals were put in my path that I could have and should have told about the saving power of believing in Jesus Christ.
It may be that I was the only person who would ever talk to them and I blew it. That’s something that I will have to live with. I have turned over the shame and guilt to Jesus but it makes me ever more certain that I should not miss the opportunities he provides to me in the future.
Time is short, whether it is the end of times or whether it is because life is uncertain and one never knows when their end will come.
All I know is that Jesus loves every single one of us the same and he wants to have a relationship with us.
If you are a Christian and haven’t been spending time with those whom you know and/or love telling them about your experience, think again. Jesus gave us the important task of spreading the news of his sacrifice and love.
We are called to tell others about him. If you are not, then you are truly not following in his footsteps. He was willing to die to have people saved. Is it too much to ask that you put yourself on the line and talk to others? I don’t think so.
Find the right time and God will make the conversation easy. Be respectful of others and let them say whether they are interested or not. No one can force another to believe what they believe. All you can do is share what Jesus has done for you.
God will do the rest.
Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted [that it was really He].
Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority (all power of absolute rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.”