This year I have really enjoyed (well I still am) studying the Bible, and learning from various books, people, stories and applying the lessons in my life. I was recently thinking about what I have learnt about Jesus in the Bible, and how He lived His life. These four things really spoke to me, and inspired me, and I thought that would share them with youJ
- Always pray
“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” Luke 5:16, NIV
Two things I promised to work on this year with regards to my relationship with God – studying the word of God, and praying. It is always easy to pray when things are going as planned, but when there is a bump or obstacle along the way we stop. Prayer is simply talking to God and expressing our feelings to Him. Jesus lived a prayerful life, He prayed for and with others, but He also prayed alone and for Himself. I have been learning that praying for myself a lot is actually a good thing, putting myself first in my prayers list – is accepted. How will I pray for someone if my prayer life is a mess? How will I encourage you to talk to God, if I am not doing it myself?
2. Consistency
This is a word we hear all the time, but recently I thought about it as I studied the word of God – Jesus was consistent. He lived His life doing what He had to do (for a people so undeserving) and at the end of it, the people who mocked Him, beat Him and nailed Him to the cross, confessed that surely He is the son of God (Matthew 27:54). This hit me so hard, that despite the circumstances, despite who He was addressing, Jesus made His mission known! And the one thing that He did was acted in ways that supported His words. Everything He did and was, right from when He was born, made sense in the end – and proved who He really was.
How many times do we give up the mission simply because no one believes in us? Or believes in what we are doing, and saying? How many times?
Consistency is a personal struggle for me, I tend to work hard on something when I am getting cheered on, and when there are no cheers, my pace reduces, and the passion dies off. But Jesus has taught me that like Him, I need to believe in what I am doing, what I am saying, eventually people will see – BUT even when they don’t see it, what matters is I believe it and in myself!
3. Love and compassion for others
Jesus was a people’s person, He spent time with people, He listened to people, and He was there for people. I always think about how Jesus was God and man at the same time, when He was on earth, and He didn’t shove that down people’s throats. As God, He could tell what would happen before it happened – but He still spent time with people. Think about the story of the woman at the well – Jesus knew EVERYTHING about her, literally everything, but He asked questions that led to her opening up. As human beings, we tend to want to give people the solution before listening to them, and sometimes we see ourselves as superior as or better than others. In that story we see someone who cares, a non-judgmental person, someone with a listening ear, and the beauty is at the end of it all – we see a savior!
4. Faith in God
This can never be stressed enough. This has been my lesson this year, learning about faith, and questioning whether I really have it. I encourage you to watch the series Crazy Faith by Pastor Mike Todd. Jesus was a man of faith, and He believed in the power of God. He knew that no matter what happened God always had His back. I think about the prayer that He made in (Luke 22:39-44), and then the prayer He prayed when He was crucified. That takes faith! The fact that He was the son of God – and He knew that, He knew the powers that He had, He still believed in God and we see how He had faith in God, I admire His faith!
I am really enjoying studying the bible and using what I am learning in my personal life – it is life changing! Dr. Dharius Daniels has an amazing masterclass on YouTube on studying the Bible, it is a three part video and it really helped me in learning the difference between reading the bible and studying the bible. Find some time and watch!
Thanks for reading!
