A CUP OF COLD WATER

 WALKING WITH JESUS

‘Yes, and those who decide to please Christ Jesus by living godly lives will suffer at the hands of those who hate him. In fact, evil men and false teachers will become worse and worse, deceiving many, they themselves having been deceived by Satan. But you must keep on believing the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know that you can trust those of us who have taught you. You know how, when you were a small child, you were taught the holy Scriptures; and it is these that make you wise to accept God’s salvation by trusting in Christ Jesus. The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right. It is God’s way of making us well prepared at every point, fully equipped to do good to everyone.’ (2 Timothy 3:12-17 TLB).

Today, I want us to discuss something we started talking about in my last post which is walking with Jesus. We said that if we walk closely with Him, we will get to know Him better and that knowing Him better will not only help us to know and do what He likes, we will also know and avoid what He dislikes. By walking with Jesus we please God in our daily living. Walking with Jesus implies living a holy life, since we cannot be unholy and walk with a Holy God, there would be no basis for our fellowship together. 

The Apostle Paul's letter in the Bible verses above was addressed to Timothy, but its counsel can be applied to us living in these times, because the challenges are relevant and the solutions are true. He described the challenges Timothy would face as he tried to walk with Jesus as suffering in the hands of those who hated Jesus, and being at risk of the deception of false teachers and evil men. He also gave him solutions to these challenges, which are to keep following Jesus, no matter the sacrifice or risk, and to maintain faith and hope in Jesus' resurrection. 

As followers of Jesus in the times in which we live, we can say that Apostle Paul was speaking to our generation as well. We must therefore resolve to walk with Jesus and be ready to pay the price for doing so. The word of God, the Holy Bible, will teach us the truth and help us to know what is false teaching. We must also resolve to keep our faith, without hesitation. Keeping our faith can at times make us seem old fashioned and at odds with the world’s systems, but God and His word are still relevant for us today. Our confidence should be that although we may seem out of tune with current times, God and His word do not change with the changing times and we will all be judged by His word. 

Resolving to walk with Jesus is therefore not easy all the time, but there are ways to overcome that. We must continue to believe the Holy Bible, from which we get principles to guide and direct us in life, much as a compass does. In believing, we must put them into practice by obeying and observing the boundaries set around us by these principles. Some things are good to do while others are not, even if we are allowed to do them, because certain things, though apparently innocent, can get such a grip on us that we cannot easily stop doing them, even when we want to. 

We must submit to Him in all things, if we are to continually walk with Him, trusting that our knowledge is limited to what we see, hear, feel, smell and taste, while His knowledge is unlimited and He is able to get us to where we want to go, and further, to get us to His expected end for us. 

We must seek the Holy Spirit’s help daily. God gave us His Holy Spirit as our Comforter, Helper, Guide and Teacher and He is always with us, so we have the opportunity to always walk in His will. We must confess our faith in Jesus Christ, without hesitation, daily and when the occasion arises, thereby establishing whose we are. 

We must fight the good fight of faith, always taking a stand for righteousness, despite being confronted with evil all day long. 

We must consciously make the choice to stay with Jesus and pursue His will only, giving no regard to what is trying to pull us away from Him. 

We must continue to fellowship with other believers, we cannot be an island as a follower of Jesus. Fellowshipping offers us protection, a place of prayer, worship, reading the Holy Bible, giving to advance the kingdom of God and building each other up in our faith. We cannot afford to be a loner follower of Jesus because we will put ourselves in danger of losing our faith and turning back from walking with Jesus. For example, if a pile of wood is used to light a fire, they all burn together for as long as all the pile remain together. If one wood is removed from the pile and set aside, it burns for a while, then smolders and eventually the fire dies out. So it is for a follower of Jesus who is not in fellowship with other believers. 

When we continue doing all the things mentioned above, we are building our lives on the solid foundation, Jesus Christ, and we are therefore able to withstand suffering from the hands of those who hate Jesus. We can also withstand troubles and trials that come our way, because Jesus helps us overcome every attack against us.

The benefits of walking with Jesus are endless, chief among which is the fellowship we have with Him as we get to know Him better. We have a Friend who is always with us, no matter our circumstances, helping us face our daily living challenges and uncertain times. 

The fulfilment we get from walking with Jesus compels us to introduce others to Him and we have been given authority to do so by Jesus Himself. As followers of Jesus, we are to make disciples from every nation and to teach them to obey all His commandments and guess what? Jesus is right there with us as we carry out His mandate. He is always with us even to the end of times.