It Starts On the Inside

Discipleship was nothing like I thought it would be. Growing up in the church I took the notion that discipleship wasn’t much more that living a good life and being a good person. Being a good person meant going to church when there was a service, not drinking, not smoking, and living a life publicly that you would not be embarrassed to have someone see. Discipleship is so much more than that. I am learning that discipleship is more that living a good life. It’s more than living a life publicly. In fact discipleship has a lot more to do with life lived privately than anything else. It is a personal relationship to the Father and with Jesus Christ that overflows into our public life. This reminds me of Luke 18:10-14NKJV. 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” The Pharisee (a member of the religious elite) was living his life publicly and made sure that everyone had noticed all of the good things he was doing. He wanted people to know why he should be thought of as better than them. The tax collector (which was considered to be a dishonorable occupation) was exactly the opposite. He approached the temple in a humble manner. He had an inner experience. His communication with God came from his heart. He wasn’t looking to see who could see him or who could hear him. That experience was just between him and God. That is what each of our discipleship experiences need to be-just between us and God. While there are community roads that we need to walk in our discipleship journey, our own journey is specific to our individual lives. Of the two men in the temple that day, the tax collector was the one who went home justified before God. Jesus said whoever humbles himself will be exalted. That is what discipleship is: the act of humbling oneself before God; acknowledging God and His desires for the purpose of our lives. Discipleship isn’t a lifestyle that we live through-it is more of an identity that we have adopted after we have given our own sense of self identity up.Lord I thank you for showing me the areas in my life that I still need to humble before you. I want to live a life humbled before you in private and not one where I try and be a good person in public. I know as I submit myself to your will and word that private life will overflow into the way I am seen in public. May my life bring glory to your name. Amen.