Thursday, February 7th, 2019

The State of the Union address this year, like most years, was a call for unity and a call for forward progress. No one in life likes to think they are moving backwards and the same is true for our faith. If we are not moving forward in our faith and growing daily in our relationship with Christ, we are not giving it the time nor focus it deserves. In Luke, Jesus has an interaction with a man who tells Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go!” However, he first must go bury his father and say goodbye to his family. Jesus basically tells him he must go now or not go at all, saying, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Don’t we all have a reason (or two or three) we tell ourselves for why we don’t seek Jesus first each and every day? A life of seeking Jesus eliminates the distractions that delay us from forming deeper relationship today. The key to seeking Jesus is to start now and refuse to be distracted tomorrow. Today, make the decision to dive deeper and clear your eyes of the distractions that have made you wait until today to do so.

“As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

He said to another man, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” – Luke 9: 57-62 NIV