Sunday 30 April 2017

Disciple vs Follower

Jesus had 70 followers, among whom 12 were His “disciples”. Disciple is someone who’s disciplined, is a matured imitator of his Teacher. A follower is more casual in his approach of following the teachings of the Teacher. As I meditated on it, I felt that we can be either a disciple or a follower at any point of time – a disciple is a matured Christian having a close relationship with the Teacher (Jesus), while a follower lacks maturity. We reflect the characteristics of a disciple when we follow God whole-heartedly, and the moment we lose focus on God, we tend to become a mere follower. It’s the spiritual maturity that defines a “disciple”.

Let God work in us as we become His favorite disciples, as He molds us into the image of His Son Jesus.

Just outlined some attitude differences below:

Disciple vs Follower

- Disciple - Lord, teach me how to pray.
- Follower - Can someone pray for me?

- Disciple - Lord, make me more like You.
- Follower - Lord, please help me become like this, or like that

- Disciple - I trust in You, no matter the cost
- Follower - Desires to trust in God, but cost and the risk seem too high, keeps backups

- Disciple - Marvels at God's character and His ways
- Follower - Marvels at God's power and His wonders

- Disciple - Accepts God's chastening as it is God's love that disciplines His children
- Follower - Assumes God is punishing for their actions

- Disciple - God is his only priority, at all times
- Follower - God is one of his priorities in life

- Disciple - Loves spending time with God, as a close and intimate friend
- Follower - Spends time with God occasionally, more like a formal meet-up for placing requests

- Disciple - Neither worldly success, nor religion makes sense
- Follower - Sees worldly success as a gift from God, and religion as a way of paying back to him

- Disciple - Values the fruits of the Spirit
- Follower - Values the gifts of the Spirit

- Disciple - Loves God with all of his heart
- Follower - Loves the concept of God, and how He "fits" in his life

- Disciple - Knows and acknowledges human weakness; transparent with what he feels
- Follower - Rebukes human weakness and relates it to being unbelieving

- Disciple - No masks, brutally honest with God as with a close friend
- Follower - Thinks it's a sin to question God

- Disciple - Matured enough to not judge people by their outward appearance
- Follower - Criticizes people merely by seeing what they do or by hearing what others say about them

- Disciple - Set apart from the world; unable to tolerate the sinful and ungodly spirits
- Follower - Finds it quite amusing to mingle with the world and still stand for God

- Disciple - Learns to be led by the Holy Spirit, day by day
- Follower - Not much aware of how the Spirit leads and so takes decisions mostly by himself or by listening to others

- Disciple - Overwhelmed with emotions seeing God's directions and timing; Answerer excites them more than the answer
- Follower - Excited about the answers received from God; answers excite them more than the Answerer

- Disciple - Knows that he is highly valued, not by works, but by grace
- Follower - Often feels he needs to do something for God

- Disciple - Knows when it’s his time to fight, and when he is to stand still and let God fight
- Follower - Not really sure when to fight or whether to even fight

- Disciple - Is able to differentiate Holy Spirit's conviction from Devil's condemnation
- Follower - Unsure whether he's convicted or condemned; leading to rebellion or shame

- Disciple - Is loving towards his critics and says, "Lord, forgive them; for they know not what they do!"
- Follower - Is not able show love, to someone who hurts him and says, "Vengeance is from God"

- Disciple - Learns from the Holy Spirit to be like Jesus
- Follower - Learns from disciples or the people around to be like someone they admire

- Disciple - Knows that brokenness is valuable and it lets God's light to shine through
- Follower - Equates brokenness with weakness

- Disciple – Carries the cross and follows Jesus
- Follower – Does not think needs to carry the cross, as Jesus has already done it!

Thursday 20 April 2017

Patience pays

James 1:4
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.


Patience, is waiting with good hope for something better than what you can get in the "now". In a world where everything is geared towards instant gratification, it's hard to see people who are willing to wait and not give in to temptations to act according to their whims. It's always hard to wait, be it in a long queue at the grocery store, or at the traffic or for a promotion at work that you feel is long time due. It's painful, but patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit that God desires to produce in His children. To make matters worse, we often see that people all around us are “prospering” even without having to wait! Well, the Psalmist knows how that feels and asks us to be patient even in such situations (Psalms 37:7 - “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way..”)

Hebrews 6:15
And so, after he (Abraham) had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
 
Abraham had to wait for the fulfillment of God’s promise even after all the circumstances became humanly impossible. Joseph had to endure humiliation for extended periods of time, before he rose as a ruler as his God-given dreams came to pass. Moses had to wait till the strength of his youth faded, before he became the promised Deliverer of Israel. Mary and Martha waited for their brother's healing even until his death. But we know that all those seemingly "end-of-story" turned out to be the beginning of their breakthroughs. The Bible is full of such stories that shows that God's favor didn't come by in an instant to the heroes of faith, but it took years for the fulfillment of the promises, and in this painfully slow process, theylearnt to patiently wait for God to come through in their difficult and often impossible situations.

Here's a story from the internet:

Once, a king had announced that he wanted to appoint a new minister to serve in his kingdom. The people of the kingdom, who envisioned themselves as capable to be in the king's service, gathered in the palace, eagerly waiting to know what would be their test. The king led all those candidates to a small pond and said, "Whoever will fill this pond's water in this pot will be chosen as my minister. But remember, there is a hole in the pot."

Some people who wanted to merely test their luck, left without a single try, as they thought it's not worth the effort. While some people, who thought they were capable of accomplishing the task, tried for once, and some others for a couple more times before they gave up in exasperation saying, "The king has already chosen someone else. This must be an eye wash. Let's better quit this contest and save our time and energy."

But there was one man, who kept filling the pot with the pond water patiently. He filled the water in the pot to the brim and upon reaching the ground, he saw that the water was draining completely. He kept doing this again and again till there was no more water in the pond, to fill his pot! The man found a diamond ring in the empty pond and he gave it to the king. At this the king said, "This ring is a reward for your patience and hard work. You are fit for the job."

In the same way, we might think our test is to perform well in the area of life we often find ourselves struggling in, like "filling the pot", but who knows, the real test could be something else - maybe it’s a test of patient perseverance, or a process that God uses to produce in us the fruits of the Spirit, to make us more like His perfect Son, Jesus.

- Patience with family - When someone in your family asks for your help all the time without even being grateful, and you show your patient kindness through your actions, that's love.
- Patience with self - When you don't perform well, but you know that there's always a second chance and that you can do better next time through God's grace - that's confidence.
- Patience with others - When someone hurts you, and you don't hurt them back but you wish them well, and you show love to your enemies, that's respect.
- Patience with God - When you are waiting for God's help and you've been praying about your situation for years or decades now, and you still patiently trust His timing, that's faith.