Just Like Jesus

Recently my MSN pm read like this: God made you and He loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you there. He wants you to be just like Jesus.

And it's true. God loves you just the way you are, but He's not contented to leave you where you are, simply because He's destined you for greatness. And until you fulfill your potential of greatness, God's not goiing to leave you alone. He's going to come and knock on the doors of your heart everyday until you respond. He's gonna shake your faith everyday until you make Him your only pillar of strength and confidence. He's gonna keep moulding you until you are willing to allow Him to expand your territory. Simply, He's gonna keep going at you until you become like Jesus, your ultimate purpose.

Becoming just like Jesus. Yes,that's right. The Bible tells us in Philippians that God's ultimate purpose for us is to possess the attitude of Christ Jesus.(Philippians2)

But what does it mean to posess the attitude of Jesus? Simple. It means to have the heart of Jesus. David was written as man after God's own heart. Moses knew God on a personal basis, he too knew the hear of God. Many of the characters in the Bible knew what it meant to catch the heartbeat of God. Friends catching the heartbeat of God is good, but God wants you to go one step further. God wants you to catch His whole heart. The Bble writes for us that out of the heart comes thinkings and actions. In other words, your heart shapes who you are. That's why of all things, God wants to deal with your heart first. And who else to model after but Jesus? John,who followed Jesus for 3 and a half years, described Jesus as blameless and pure. That's why until your heart is like Jesus', God's not going to rest.

But to be like Jesus is not going to be easy. There are several tests we have to go though as believers to ultimately fuflill the call that God has placed in our lives. We will explore these tests in the next few posts.

Tests are:
1)Inevitable. Jesus himself was tested many times, by the devil, by the pharisees, even by his own disciples. Basically if you want to grow, you have to grow through tests.
2)Continual. They occur throughout your whole life, until the day you meet the LORD and receive the eternal crown He's prepared for you.
3)Necessary. I believe I've stressed a lot on this point. Beasically if you want to grow, you have to grow through tests, because that's where you'll come out stronger each time and that's how you grow.
4)Productive. Obviously. God will not test you for no reason. He will not bring you through something just for the sake of doing it. He has a purpose for each and every phase of your life.
5)Influential. This is what many people don't realize. When you are being tested, do you know that you can actually influence people? The testimonines that you bring with you after each ordeal are essential and powerful tools to impact the people around you. Therefore do not think that what you're going through is just for yourself, no, God meant for you to testify of Him even during each ordeal, because that's where you can bless and infuence others when they see how you can stand firm in God even when your whole world falls.
6)Crafted by God. Every test you have gone through and will go through has been specailly crafted by God. He will not give you soemthing that you cannot sustain, nor will He give you something that doesn't bring out your fullest potential. That's how He knows what you are going through, but that's how He knows that you will emerge stronger.

Tests are just some of the things that God uses to mould us until we eventually become like Jesus. Friends in everything rejoice, because you can be sure that in whatever you are going through, God will be your constant, He will be your pillar of strength and comfort, and He will indeed fight for you in eveything. IN THE STORM, DARE TO WALK ON THE WATER WITH JESUS, THAT'S WHERE YOU'LL TRAMPLE ON EVERY WAVE.