Out of your Comfort Zone

It's much easier to speak about following Jesus when you are making a general statement without any specific commitments. But the most obvious and basic definition of following Jesus will mean making some significant life changes. Following Jesus literally means that you go where Jesus goes. . . We  may be quick to say to Jesus, "I will follow You wherever. . ." But let's move it from the general to the more specific. Where is the one place you find it most difficult to follow Jesus? If you said to Jesus "Wherever," where do you think is the one place He would point and say, "What about there?"

One of the reasons we don't follow Jesus wherever is that when He says there we take that more as a suggestion than as a command. . .  Jesus wants followers who will say yes to Him before they even know the request. A follower of Jesus says, "My answer is yes, now where did you want me to go?"


Jesus speaks of following Him as a journey of risk and uncertainty. . . Whenever we are afraid of what a commitment will lead to, our instinctual response is to say no. Fear always asks the question, "What if?". . . The number-one way people deal with fear is avoidance. . . If you say to Jesus, "I will follow you wherever," you can be sure that where He points will be out of your comfort zone. "Out of your Comfort Zone" could be defined this way: "The places where saying yes to God means saying no to me."

The most literal way to define a "Follower of Jesus" is "Someone who goes where Jesus goes."

 -From "Not a Fan" by Kyle Idleman

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