One of the things that spoke to me from Andrea’s message was when she mentioned that Jesus had all the potential in the world to do whatever He wanted, yet He chose to do what God told Him to do.
Jesus ended up choosing purpose over potential. On the one hand Jesus was/is the son of God; the word made flesh, fully God and yet fully man. He had the potential to heal whoever He wanted to heal, perform whatever miracles He wanted and even had the potential to rule the world. On the other hand Jesus was/is the son of God; chosen to bear the burdens of our sins on the cross so that we may be made righteous before God and have eternal life.
Jesus understood what it means to be a son, not just as a boy growing up in Nazareth, but even as He grew up into a man. He was so connected to God that He wanted what God wanted, even to the point of death. Although Jesus asked for the cup of sin to be taken away from Him, He ultimately submitted to God’s will not His own.
As I try to wrap my head around how Jesus can choose potential over purpose, God reminded me that before Jesus had potential, He had God. We often look at Jesus’ life seeing all the possibilities and potential He could have had and say things like “If He had just stayed on earth a little longer, if He had healed just a little more people, or if He just used His ability to do this or that” and the list goes on. It’s rather naïve on our part to assume Jesus’ potential as we can never imagine what it would be like to walk in His shoes, let alone fathom what potential the Son of God could possibly have here on earth. God showed me that before Jesus could walk, talk or let alone perform a miracle, He was with Him.
Jesus chose purpose over potential because He knew that without God there was no potential. His decision was based on relationship, based on a trust in the Father that goes beyond time. It was based on the love He had for His father and the love His father had for Him.
To be honest, sometimes it’s easier to talk about what Jesus did and His life than our own. He is the ultimate example for how to live this life but at times I find that it is quite a difficult task to follow His ways.
Andrea’s sharing of obedience, sacrifice and fruitfulness is a rare example of what it looks like to follow Jesus’ ways.
Andrea has the potential to do anything and everything she could ever possibly desire, yet she chose to submit to God’s will for her life and follow His ways. You don’t just wake up one day and make that decision. That decision was based on relationship. It was based on small acts of trust in the Father and a reminder of who He is and how much she is loved by Him.
My prayer is that the people of LifeSpring would follow Jesus’ way for their lives. My prayer is that acts of obedience and sacrifice out of an overflow of God’s love would not be a rare occurrence in the family of LifeSpring. My prayer is that we would all live a life of fruitfulness that shows the world who is Lord. In Jesus name, we pray and follow His ways, Amen!