Letting Jesus Flow Through Every Aspect of Your Life
One important question I had to ask myself when I was getting closer to Jesus was this: what parts of my life am I leaving Jesus out of?
In my personal experience, I played soccer all my life growing up. It became my identity and who I was. Off the field I was calm, energetic, funny. But on the field I was someone completely different. Angry, reckless, aggressive.
When we step into these high-intensity, highly emotional environments — are the moments changing us, or are we changing the moment? When I stepped on that field, was I showing more of Jesus, or was I showing more of myself?
Now ask yourself that same question. In your everyday life, are you showing more of Jesus or more of yourself? And then ask the harder one: what parts of your life have you been leaving Jesus out of, and why?
Me playing soccer is one example, but it applies to anyone. We step into a certain workplace. We see a specific person we may not like. We get into a road rage incident. High-intensity, highly emotional environments and situations.
But the reaction shows the fruit you've been holding underneath. Just a bomb ticking, waiting to go off. Waiting for that one person to test you.
The root beneath the fruit
In Galatians 5:16–26, Paul writes about the fruits of the Spirit versus the fruits of the flesh. But I want to dive a bit deeper — because the fruits of the flesh are just the outward result of what we've been holding in our hearts.
In Matthew 5, Jesus says some very compelling things. The commandment says we should not kill, but Jesus teaches that whoever is angry with his brother needs to reconcile that matter. Then later He says the commandment tells us not to commit adultery, but that whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart.
So now we learn something completely different. Reconciliation. The heart. Forgiveness.
Paul talks about murder and adultery in the fruits of the flesh — but before we get to murder, there's already anger in our hearts toward our brothers. Before we commit the physical act of adultery, there's already lust in the heart.
We judge the action and the sin, and forget that deep beneath it is a person with a past. We see people drinking or smoking, but we never see who they really are underneath.
What's really underneath
In my personal life, lust has been an issue. Coming and going. Falling and getting up.
But after spending so much time with Jesus, I came to realize the lust was just the result of how I thought of myself deep down — and that was a feeling of inadequacy. I was using lust and women as a disguise, because I needed to feel like more of a man. Like I had power.
Using sin as the mask instead of confronting myself. Always making sure I had that quick fix to keep the mask on.
I was taught that the more women I seemed to be with, the cooler and more powerful I would seem — that all my deepest fears and feelings of being inadequate would be gone.
But what happens when Jesus tells you that you are enough? That His living water is the true fulfillment? That He knew you before you were formed in the womb?
That question led me to another one: what happens when I let go of these strongholds?
For someone else it could be a bad attitude. Impatience. Being easily angered. A lack of commitment. The list goes on — but everyone's personal why is completely different.
Don't leave Him at the door
So don't leave Jesus at the door.
Don't walk into the workplace and become a different person. Don't get into that argument and let everything loose. Let Jesus be everywhere you are. Allow Him into the deepest parts of who you are.
Give yourself the time to change, because it won't be perfect on the first go. It'll be a work in progress of you denying your own flesh. But endure, and let the perfect work take its course.
God bless.
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, Isaiah Abraham
