Are you persuaded?

At this point many of His disciples turned away and deserted Him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you going too?”  Simon Peter replied, “Master, to whom shall we go?  You alone have the words that give eternal life,” ~John 6:68 (NIV) 

Not everybody wants to hear what Jesus has to say. Even His followers got offended at times.  But those who knew where they came from before they met Jesus hung on every word. They knew there was something different about this man. They knew He had the words of life. He had more than the ability to miraculously feed thousands and He had more than the ability to miraculously heal the sick, He had a personal relationship with God the Father, and He was leading His disciples on the path to eternal life. Peter knew Jesus well enough to know that following Him was changing Peter from the inside out.  It was changing the way Peter thought, which in turn was changing Peter’s life. Peter liked his choice to follow Jesus too well to change his mind about it. There was no other place to better himself as a man than following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We all came out of sin when we came to Jesus. We forsook chaos and contempt to follow Him. We heard His words in Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (NIV) and we partook. When we did, we experienced the awesome presence of God, and we found peace and rest for our souls. Before we go searching for another avenue to produce that kind of peace, we might want to reflect on who we were and where we were before we met the Lord. Peter’s response to Jesus was not a thoughtless resolve stemming from blind faith. It was the result of a solid contemplation and a mature deliberation. When it came to the world, Peter had been there and done that. That was no place to go back to. This world had nothing real to offer Him. 

Jesus has the words of eternal life for us too. We might not understand them completely, but in our heart of hearts, we know He is right and that He is the one. The Holy One sent from God to save us from our sin and guide us into our destiny. It’s hard to comprehend how God would expect us to give thanks in the difficult times or turn the other cheek when others hurt us, but the truth is that when we do it His way it produces a much better effect on us and those around us than our way does. It is past our ability to comprehend without the Holy Spirits help how spending our time and resources for the love and benefit of others comes back to us a hundredfold, but the truth is that it does. This world has nothing to offer us, but Jesus does. He has the words of eternal life, and we would do well to remember His teachings and implement them into our lives. His words teach us how to operate in a spiritual kingdom that is more real than the one we walk out our front door into every day. There is no more wavering, this is past dispute. Now that we have ventured our soul on it, it is time we ventured our life for it. Do you know whom you have believed? Are you persuaded?

...for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. ~2 Timothy 1:12 (NKJV)

Is God changing the way you think? Are you progressively becoming more like Him in thoughts, words and deeds?

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