What Leads Your Life?

I think it is vital for everyone to evaluate what direction their life is headed. Lately, I've thought about what propels our lives. 

Fear is one of the top motivating factors for decisions in life. Even in ministry. We come up with reasons why we can or cannot move forward. We can easily build a prison of fear around our lives where every thought, decision and conversation is crippling. 

"I don't know if that is possible."
"But...what if this happens."
"What if I fail?" 
"I don't have all of the answers"

Many times in my life I have fallen into a pit of fear. Sometimes our fear is surface fear that comes and goes like the wind, but other times deep rooted fear holds us hostage to the mediocrity of the day. We choose not to talk about it. It becomes a secret. We harbor fear in our soul to the point that we quit dreaming. I have experienced this many times. I'm sure you have as well. 

How do we break free from fear and move into faith? 

1) Realize that faith isn't faith unless it takes more than your own strength to accomplish it. If our life as a Christ-follower is all about doing what everyone else is doing then we will experience no change or difference. 

2) Ask God to replace fear with faith. 
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5

3) Never stop dreaming.
Instead of finding reasons, "why" something can't happen, ask the better question, "why not?" Nobody in human history has ever done anything monumental by choosing to stop dreaming. We have the power that raised Jesus from the dead living inside of us as Christ-followers! Follow His strength to lead your life and never allow fear to motivate your life, because God's perfect love casts out fear. 

The Simplicity of Following Jesus

We live in a complex world. We have more information at our fingertips than ever before in history. Complexity is the norm of society and it is seeping many times into our relationship with Jesus Christ. We think doing more, reading more, trying harder and keeping busy will move us towards a closer, intimate relationship with Him. 

Jesus is the greatest communicator of all time. He would take the complex and make it simple. He would take years of religious debate and quiet the crowd with a few words. He answered a religious lawyer in Matthew 22:35-40 about the most important commandment in the Bible. 

Jesus explained the Great Commandment:

Matthew 22:35-40
"
One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question:
 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” 37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Love God. Love People. Jesus clarified the simplicity of the Kingdom of God. 

Jesus communicated the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20.

Matthew 28:19-20
"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Serve the world by making disciples. Everywhere. All the Time

Life can become so saturated with "doing" that we miss out on an intimate relationship with God. By the way, God can do more in a few minutes than a lifetime of "trying" on our own strength.

You are called to live a life of focus, not distraction. What is distracting you from the simplicity of following Jesus?

Stay simple.