Who’s Your Model?
September 17
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
1 Peter 1:21
Sitting around the backyard fire pit, Jimmy posed the question to J.D. “I know some of your story, but when did you finally decide to follow Jesus?”
“Well,” J.D. began, “I’ve mentioned before that I gave my heart to Christ at the tender age of twelve, and I meant it too!” he said decisively. “But when I turned fifteen, we moved and I began running with a group of guys four years older than me. They were pretty rough, and God didn’t fit into their lifestyle, so I ditched Him too. Within a year, I’d started hanging with two guys in particular; I eventually rewrote my moral and ethical standards.
"I was young and impressionable; I looked up to them. Well, life got pretty wild. It wasn’t all bad. As a matter of fact, some of it felt great! But thirty years of that lifestyle wears on you. I got tired of living day to day with no goals or significant motivation. So I told God, ‘If you don’t help me stop, I’m not gonna stop.’ I meant that too!”
“So what happened?” Jimmy asked with a grin.
“No joke, Jimmy. I felt God tell me to stop looking at the world as a model for success. So right there I asked Jesus to lead me out of that prison I called freedom. I’ve been following Him ever since.”
†
The world can be an attractive example of what it means to live. But it’s not the right one.
In our hunger for acceptance and attention, we sometimes choose spiritually unhealthy, nonbeneficial lifestyles, refusing the truth of where we’re headed in order to rationalize doing things we know to be wrong.
When we model our life after the world, we’re choosing to go our own way; that flies in the face of God’s sacrifice.
Life is about Who we choose to follow and why. God will not force His will for our lives on us. But a life lived in the shadow of Jesus’ example yields eternal life, a life that begins the moment we choose to follow in His steps.
Prayer
“Lord Jesus, You lead, I’ll follow. Draw me into a relationship that is life changing. Amen.”
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