I’m reading John at the moment, and the way I like to read the Bible is to read until something jumps out at me, and then stop and try to reflect on that during the day. There are so many good lessons in John that Jesus is teaching His disciples that are relevant to me, so it is taking a while! But anyways, today I was reading John 15:9-17 and verse 13 says “Greater love has no one than this, that to lay down one’s life for his friends.” It’s a verse I’m sure we are all familiar with, and is often associated with great men and women of history who have given up their life for some kind of service. But if we keep reading, the very next verse says “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you”. There are many amazingly cool things that we can do for Jesus but what often happens is we ‘do Jesus things’ rather than ‘do what Jesus does’ which was to lay down His life literally, but also surrendered every single day of His life here on earth to do His Father's will. If Jesus is our friend, then the greatest love we can show Him is to lay our life down for Him. That doesn’t necessarily mean to move to the other side of the world and preach the gospel, but it does mean making that choice DAILY to surrender to Him, to choose Him over our earthly desires, to follow His will instead of just our own desires, and to trust His plan for our lives rather than to try and run ahead of God and do with our life what we want.
Yesterday I had a situation where I had a choice to make. With finishing up my degree in 5 months, the slight anxiousness of getting a job and what comes next has gradually been increasing as the end draws closer and closer. I get regular emails of potential job opportunities and was flicking through a few yesterday and saw a job that looked perfect and that I would love. I didn’t particularly give it a second thought and started writing up how my skill set would fit this role, and all that fun application stuff, and then the Holy Spirit just dropped a conviction into my heart saying “Is this actually God’s plan or are you trying to take it into your own hands?” and after having a quick chat to my mum about it, I realised that yes, my anxiety over wanting to have a plan was overtaking my trust in God. If I applied, yes I might possibly get this job but if it’s not God’s plan, then it’s actually not God’s best for me and would rob me of the right door that God does have for me. So, I made the choice to lay down this job that I wanted to apply for, and instead, focus back on what God has put in front of me today. Uni assignments lol. Obedience aka laying our life down is the best way we can love God so if I truly want to love God and follow Him with all of my life, yesterday, I needed to listen to the Holy Spirit who was quite clearly warning me to stay the course and just finish the assignment God has given me for this season - literally and figuratively! If I did pursue this job when I felt God saying not yet, then it would be disobedience and not loving God.
When we make that choice to lay down our life and what we want through our human perspective, and instead, choose to wait on God’s timing and the path He is leading us on, it shows our love and our trust in Jesus, and we end up with the best outcome that we could imagine. God’s way is always best - it’s another hard lesson that I’m always learning, but already through my 22 years, God has shown me how His shut doors and open doors are so much better. At the time, I usually cannot see it, but that’s where I need to keep making that choice to love God by trusting Him and following Him. And sometimes it is really hard, but it is so so worth it. So today, remember that the ‘greatest way’ you can love your Friend, Jesus, is to lay your life down for Him.
