Hi, this is Pastor Diego. Welcome to The Daily Five. Thank you for joining us today. This podcast is designed to give you a short, daily, five-minute word of encouragement to inspire you to think and act on God's word.
Hey everyone, welcome to today's episode. Today's episode is called Reset. I want you to think for a second about the first time that you encountered Jesus, encountered His teachings on grace, love, forgiveness, redemption, restoration. How did it make you feel?
What did you decide to do with the truth once you heard about everything that Jesus offered you? That's the question today. It's about commitment. There's a time when every person who encounters Jesus, who believes in Jesus as the Son of God, decides that they're going to do one of two things.
They're either going to spend the rest of their life following Him, or number two, they're going to follow Him from a distance. Some people make the decision to follow Him the minute they meet Him. But if you're like me, you might spend years of your life living as mediocre or halfway committed followers of Jesus before going all in. But commitment to anything you do is important, but it's especially important to be all in when you're following Jesus.
Because our lives are shaped by our commitments. We become whatever we're committed to. If we don't commit to anything, then we don't become anything in life. The greatest followers of Jesus Christ are just ordinary people who made a commitment to a cause that's greater than themselves.
Let me give you an analogy. Life and commitment for a lot of people is kind of like going down a buffet line. If you're from Las Vegas, this is a real clear analogy. The fear of commitment comes from thinking that there might be something better a little bit later on, so you don't go all in at the moment.
You stand at the front of the buffet line, and you only want to fill up your entire plate just in case there's something that you really, really like down the line. Listen, the important things in life require commitment. You can't buy a house or a car without making a commitment. You can't have a job for a long without making a commitment.
You can't get married without making a commitment. While you can kind of follow Jesus from a distance, you'll never experience the full joy that he offers until you get close. Until you get close, you won't feel whole. Something about your faith will feel incomplete.
This reminds me of a verse in John chapter 1 verse 36-38. It says, As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, Look, there is the Lamb of God. When John's two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. They're following him now.
Verse 38 says, Jesus looked around and saw them following, and turns to them and says, What do you want? He asked them, What do you want? The question we should ask ourselves is, What do we want to get from our relationship with Jesus? Is your Christianity or your religion offering you fulfillment?
Or do you need to stop, reset, start over, and recommit your life? I encourage you to take this step towards developing an honest relationship with God. And what I mean by an honest relationship is a relationship where you can be yourself around everyone and anyone, in and outside of church, and not feel guilty or feel like a robot or a loser, like you cannot good enough. But let me warn you that trying to develop a real deep relationship with God and a true commitment will take sacrifice.
On my personal journey towards really finding out who God was, it began in my second year, senior year of high school. You heard that right, my second senior year of high school. I had to do my senior year twice because I messed up the first two years and I dropped out. And I got in lots of trouble.
I decided my second year, senior year of high school, I wanted to know God and His plan for me because my current situation just wasn't that great. So during school at lunchtime, I'd go into the library and I'd sit in the farthest, darkest corner that I could find, and I would pray. And I'd pray for two things. First, that my friends wouldn't find me.
Because I knew that if I didn't stay away from my friends, I'd end up doing something I would regret later. And the second thing I prayed for is that I could get to know God. And my prayers kind of sounded something like this. God, I don't really know who I am.
I don't really know who you are. I really don't even know what faith looks like, but I'm here now. That was pretty much it. And I did that every day my entire last year of high school.
And that wasn't the last time I prayed that way. Sometimes you just have to reset. Now, I'm not sure what stage or season of life you find yourself in. If you feel like you're weighed down by your daily responsibilities and problems, that you lost your sense of identity, just reset.
Start over again. Starting over means letting the knowledge of God leak out of your brain and into your heart. Forget your past experiences and start over again with God by recommitting your life. Find a quiet place and start over with a childlike prayer of faith that says, I don't know who I am anymore.
I've lost sight of who you are, Jesus. I have no sense of real direction. I'm not sure what to do next or where to go. Jesus, can we just start again?
Get back to the basics and change the way that you approach God. Go back to the childlike prayers you used to pray before. Prayers full of questions and wonders. Prayers of a child needing direction and attention from his father.
Just say to him, I want to learn to trust you again. I want to recommit my life to live by your teachings. Start right there in whatever place you find yourself in, and God will meet you where you are. You've been listening to The Daily Five.
Apply the word and make today count.