31 Days toward Spiritual Maturity — Day 20
March 2nd, 2008 Posted in 31 Days toward Spiritual Maturity, Growth
BECOMING LIKE CHRIST — Influenced by His Closeness
Jesus rubs off on us! When we seek to truly follow Him in obedience and to “practice the presence,” as Brother Lawrence put it, we’ll find ourselves being influenced in positive ways by Him. We’ll become more like Him!
After Jesus’ ascension to heaven His disciples went around preaching and healing people. There’s a historical notation in the book of Acts in the Bible about what other people observed and concluded about two of Jesus’ disciples. It says, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13) Those people found Peter and John to be amazing, yet they knew they were ordinary men. It was then that the people took note that Peter and John had been with Jesus. Jesus had “rubbed off” on them!
A little brother often follows his big brother around and tries to do whatever he does, trying to act the way his big brother acts. Christ is meant to be our “big brother,” and we’re supposed to follow Him, attempting to copy His behavior and to be like Him. We do this in a practical way by simply trying to remain conscious of Him as much of the time as we can. Brother Lawrence wrote, “At all times, every hour, every minute, even at my busiest times, I drove away from my mind everything that was capable of interrupting my thought of God.” (Devotional Classics, Richard Foster, p.82)
Consistent reflection on Christ can change us. The apostle Paul wrote, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Christ invites us to draw near to Him in the most personal of all relationships! True Christianity isn’t just a certain belief system, though it is that. Christianity isn’t just a set of rules, though there are things we say yes or no to when we seek to follow Christ instead of yielding to our own whims and wills. The basis of Christianity is Jesus Christ and our relationship to Him! The closer to Christ we seek to be, the more we’ll find ourselves influenced by Him and the more we’ll be like Him!
Dave
