"Recovering Your Lost Relationship with Jesus 3"

A WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL" BY GBILE AKANNI"

• Repent, Seek, And Follow Jesus only in His Terms. 

“…they sought Him among their kinsfolk and among their acquaintance.”

Luke 2:44 KJV.

The next thing I want you to consider, and avoid in your steps to spiritual restoration is what I see in this Scripture. Several people seem to have fallen victim of it.

There are times when God wants to revive you and He wakes you up to the issue of the emptiness and the lack of the reality of God in your life, but instead of going to where you can find the reality of Jesus- you seek Him elsewhere. The Bible says; “they sought Him among their kinsfolk and among their acquaintance.” They were looking for Him among men.

You may really want to be spiritual but where do you go? May be you really want to repent, but where do you go looking for the Saviour? Are you looking among your companions? Are you looking among your kinsfolk or your relatives? Some of you know that holiness is a condition for seeing heaven but instead of looking to God, you look around and say, “Even my Elders are not holier than myself, even my Pastor used to beat his wife.”

Is that enough for you to go on being careless? When you get over there, before the Lord to give account of yourself, your pastor's life will not be accepted as an excuse.

If you keep seeking Jesus among your kinsfolk and friends, you may be disappointed. You may be disappointed that the people you thought were spiritual or those you thought could help you may have ended up not showing you the reality of the Lord Jesus. So put aside every argument and self-justification and turn to Jesus in humility and repentance. He will abundantly pardon. And there is enough grace in Him to make you live up to God's standard and requirements. Moreover, God has not introduced any other person to us as our Saviour and as our example…But concerning Jesus, He declared Him to the whole world saying;“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him.”Matthew 17:5 KJV

Even the greatest of prophets and the best of preachers are yet not our perfect example for conduct, life and character…We are only to follow them to the extent that they follow Jesus.

Make Jesus, and Him alone your standard. Make His words your command and His life style your own, then you shall find peace and restoration, not just for now but for your soul eternally here after.