I took a step to follow Jesus 20 years ago.
I heard Jesus preached every Sunday, but I had neglected to consider how His life, death, and resurrection unveiled what it means to be truly human and how this impacts us as His disciples.
When we think of rest, we don’t usually connect it with obedience, but the Bible teaches us how they are linked. We have an opportunity to enter God’s rest, but we can fail to experience it out of disobedience.
I had a difficult conversation with a friend about her upcoming wedding not too long ago. Defending her love for her fiancée, she asserted, “He deserves a second chance. He deserves to be happy and have a happy ending.”
“God will never give you more than you can bear. He will give you only what you can handle.” In the early years of my walk with Jesus, I found these words comforting whenever challenges arose.
Lately, news of church leaders’ failures have become common. We hear of pastors committing fraud, embezzling church money, or getting involved in scandals involving pornography or extramarital affairs.
I once met a lady at church who touched me with her behavior. She would raise her hands during worship, and cry and belt out the songs with an obvious ache vibrating in her voice. During prayer time, she would plead with us to pray for her. I wanted to embrace her.
I grew up in a dysfunctional non-Christian family, but my mother raised me to be responsible, conservative, and cautious, to the best of her ability. Though I was not explicitly taught to wait for marriage before having sex, I knew that this was the right thing to do. So I waited.
Follow your heart, and do what makes you happy. People offered me this advice countless times while I was growing up. They said it was the secret recipe to living a pleasurable, joyful life.
I have a confession to make: I hide behind the veil of my flaws to excuse myself from doing the tasks that God calls me to do. I struggle with doubts and fears. I wrestle with many limitations and shortcomings.