7 year old Josh's plan to know God better

Folks, now this is from a 7 year old. I only helped with the shell but the idea and the plan is completely his. He’s made the decision, since the Bible told him so, to read every day in order to know God better. Let me tell you: If this isn’t convicting to you…it should be. He’s decided he’s going to take real steps to know God better and he has a plan for it. Do you have a plan to know God better? If you do I would love for you to share it. If not, why not?

Friends, let me challange you with the example of a 7 year old. Commit your life to Him and develop a plan to know HIM better. AMEN!

In Luke 14:26-27 we find Jesus teaching, “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison–your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters–yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.” Ok, at first glance this is pretty extreme. I mean, this seems to have crazy cult written all over it. However, when this teaching is taken in context with everything else Jesus taught, you’ll find a deep calling to surrender your life as a servant to those around you. Rather than a call to sever all ties with friends and family, you’ll find a call to strengthen all ties with friends and family…with a twist. Let me explain.

Scripture teaches us in 1 Timothy 5:8, “But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers.” Scripture never contradicts itself and therefore this Timothy passage must be in unison with the Luke verse, though they seem at odds. Timothy makes it very clear that we are not to abandon our family in order to follow Jesus. Luke makes it very clear that we are to love Jesus above everything else in life, including our own life. Though these verses seem at odds they actually fit perfectly. You see, our human understanding is warped by sin. We think we know how to love our family best but we don’t. Let me offer an example.

Imagine you have no idea what an automobile is or what it’s capable of. You have the desire to travel a great, great distance in order to show your love for someone. However, the distance is so great that you’ll never be able to walk there in your lifetime but you don’t know this. Jesus shows up with the nicest of sports cars and tells you to stop walking; in fact, stop doing anything you could do to move toward your goal. Just hop in this nice sports car and allow the car to take you to your goal. Now, to us this seems like a no brainer because we know the capabilities of a car. However, to someone who has no idea what a car is it would be pretty crazy to stop showing your love by halting your march toward the goal. The problem is this: you’ll never actually achieve your goal unless you get in the car! The same is true with loving your family and friends. You’ll never actually love them until you surrender everything to Jesus and love Him first.

The beloved disciple John explains this concept to us best when he writes, “We love each other because He loved us first.” (1John 4:19) Do you see this? We can’t love each other without the love of Jesus in our lives! Friends, when you step into a relationship with Jesus it’s like you’re putting on a supernatural love amplifier. Without the amplifier you can attempt to love but it won’t happen; once it’s on you’ll love like you never could before. The problem is that people don’t want to completely put the amplifier on. Remember the call from Jesus in Luke; it’s not a simple acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord…no, it’s a complete surrender of your life to Him. He must be your first and primary love. Only by seeking Him above all else is He able to guide your daily actions in order to love those around you.

You see, when you’re surrendered to Jesus and your daily actions are guided by His Word it’s actually Jesus loving those around you through you. If you desire to love your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, if you desire to love anyone, the only way to do it is through complete surrender to Jesus. Sometimes He’ll call you to do something you don’t understand. It might even look like it’s unloving to a family member, but you must trust Him. I’ve made some very difficult decisions based on His Word that eventually revealed His infinite love which I couldn’t originally see. My friends, trust me, when you live day by day surrendered to Him it will ALWAYS work out. It might be tough at first but He will never let you down. AMEN!