making much of Jesus

My prayer this morning has been to ask the Holy Spirit to cultivate in me in greater and greater measure the simple passion to make much of Jesus. My reasoning behind this is if I am seeking to making much of Jesus then it won’t matter who I’m talking with or the situation I’m in because if my greatest passion is to make much of Jesus, this will move me to give grace, to sacrifice for another, to be slow to anger, to forgive, to be patient, kind and gentle towards others and most importantly to love continually. Simply put, making much of Jesus will mean dying to myself in greater and greater measure because making much of Jesus means making less of myself.

As Jesus tells us, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it”. Both Matthew (10:36; 16:25) and Luke (9:24; 17:33) record that Jesus says this twice in His ministry, in three of the four instances Jesus includes the command to “take up your cross and follow Me.” So, if Jesus took the time to repeat Himself, we should pay extra close attention to these words. I believe a good interpretation of “taking up our cross and following Jesus” is taking the time to deal with the barriers that hinder us from following Him. This means asking ourselves: “Where am I trying to preserve my life, when I really should be dying to myself and losing my life?”

If we are to fully accept that the ultimate goal of the inward transformative work of the Holy Spirit is Christlikeness, then this means accepting the reality that life truly is not about us any longer. So we must stop striving to cultivate a righteousness of our own and simply receive in greater and greater measure the gift of Christ’s righteousness imputed to us through the cross. The more we let go of ourselves, the more we will gain Christ. What this looks like walked out is whenever we choose to forgive someone just as Jesus forgave His persecutors while hanging on the cross, He is formed within us. When we choose to give grace to someone just as Jesus extended grace to everyone He met along the way, He is formed within us. When we choose to put others needs before ours just as Jesus did in ministering to the multitudes of people who came to Him for healing, He is formed within us. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Making much of Jesus means allowing the Holy Spirit to do what He loves to do, forming Christ within us. The more we grow in Christlikeness, the more the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit will flow in and through us and the more we will make much of Jesus. So this is my prayer: Holy Spirit, do what You love to do and make the things of Jesus known to us, but even more than that, we release You to disrupt our comfortable lives in order to form Christ within us. Cultivate more of Your fruit and gifts within us, empowering us to make much of Jesus in every relationship and in every situation. In His Name we ask, Amen.