Questions about whether we walk with God or leave to live life and go it alone on our own terms isn’t a new phenomenon.  Even Jesus had questions about his disciples desire to stay with him.  After all, there was a mass exodus by some even after Jesus had openly displayed what God was able to do through him.  But sometimes what Jesus said was difficult for people to digest.  And it’s not that what he said wasn’t true.  It’s that some people draw a line in the sands of their faith about what they’re willing to accept and what they’re not.  Peter couldn’t deal with Jesus’ story of betrayal, punishment, and death.  He had his own idea of how God’s plan was to work out.  Those who chose to leave in this cycle of Jesus’ life had their reasons for choosing not to go it alone with God.  Some leave because God is not moving fast enough — again, on their terms — to bring about the conclusion to God’s eternal plan.  Others choose not to come at all because they can’t believe who Jesus is — his life, his death, the resurrection, the ascension — and other stories about his life.  Questions about who will stay and go it alone with God and those who choose simply to go it alone remain.  But the choice still is still ours to make.  Who we decide Jesus is to us will inform our decision to stay and go it alone with God or to walk away and simply go it alone.  If we’ve decided that Jesus is Christ, the Messiah, then all other options outside of going it alone with God come off the table and we’re left to go it alone with God — period!

• What issues do you believe might cause someone to walk away from belief in Christ?
• What is it that keeps your faith strong in your decision to go it alone with God?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of wisdom and Revelation, Thank you for removing from my heart and mind any questions about who Jesus is. May I always be numbered among those who can claim him as the Messiah, the anointed one from Christ.

         Life is lived as part irony and part contradiction.  While we often think of ourselves as individuals, the irony is we often prefer the buddy system.  What we’d like is for others to share in the same belief system as we do.  And we take comfort in knowing that we are a part of a group that has the same goals and ideas.  It prevents a lot of hassling about particulars that make us different. Nothing is truer than that which invites us to be on our journey with God.  Almost every multi-faith event invites us to consider those places in our understanding of God where we are alike rather than those places where we are different.  In fact, there is an organization called “Churches United In Christ” whose core mission is to visibly express Christian unity and actively work to erase racism as a barrier within the church and society.  Yet, in what could be described as the biggest disagreement between Christ and one of his disciples, the issue revolved around those differences in how each of us understood our relationship to God and whether we would be willing to go it alone with God and God’s plan or whether we would go it alone on our own.  Our differences are focused on our view of the world how we believe it should work out.  That is perhaps why we seek companionship on our journey.  We’d like to know that we aren’t the only one who sees the world from our perspective.  The difference is amplified when our perspective differs from God’s perspective.  In that regard, we are invited to drop the buddy system and go it alone with God to ensure that we are working with God and not against God.  Answering the question, “Who is Christ to us?”, goes a long way toward helping us to decide whether we will go it alone on our own, or whether we will choose to go it alone with God even when it is unpopular or unconventional.

• When did it become clear to you who Jesus was and that you would follow him?
• What preconceived ideas about God did you have to reject in order to believe Jesus is the Savior?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, when faced with loyalty to friends or my own limited understanding and loyalty to you, give me the courage to face going it alone with you rather than without you.

         What does it take for one to recognize their status before the Lord?  Certainly, faith is one component.  One must believe that God is and that God is able to do more than they are able to do.  It acknowledges our powerlessness before God.  And there is humility — recognizing our unworthiness to stand before the one who is our Savior and Redeemer justifying ourselves as having done something for which we are owed a repayment.  But that alone is not enough to unleash the unlimited grace of God.  There is something else which we must factor in.  And that is God’s acknowledgment of who we are and what we are and why we are.  It is God’s acknowledgment that our faith has value — that our faith, and our humility can move the needle of God’s unlimited grace to do miraculous things in our lives.

         The question we must ask is, “Are we past the point of amazing God with our faith?”  Have we grown so cold to what God is able to do that by our lack of faith, we actually shut down the availability of God’s unlimited grace in our own lives?  It seems like a question or two that raises doubt about what we actually believe.  But what Jesus was more aware of was this centurion’s awareness of God’s power, God’s presence, and God’s unlimited ability to do what is asked without having to be present on the scene to perform a miracle.

         God’s unlimited grace can be set free to activate our lives by the unwavering faith that Christ can do whatever we ask, whenever we ask it if we come to Christ in full faith, believing and not doubting, trusting and not suspicious, humble and not arrogant — difficult things to do when our world teaches us to be distrustful, prideful, and suspicious of everything.  The centurion believed in full faith and God’s unlimited grace became available to him.  That same grace is still available to us.

• Have you ever experienced a miracle or known someone who has because they had full faith that what they asked for, God would deliver?
• How does this attitude of faith conflict with the idea that we receive grace based on God’s will?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, teach me to live my life with full faith — believing, trusting, and humble — that You still answer prayers according to our faith and Your will.