Follow Jesus: What’s Stopping Us? We are!

I receive an early morning phone call. “You have cows wandering around in your front yard.” the voice on the other end of the line proclaims. “What do you want me to do about it?” they also interject.

Since I do not own any bovine(that’s a fancy word for cow) I am at a loss as to what to do. The cows finally wander across the road to a very luscious field of green grass and they remain there pretty much the whole day.

I can’t say that I blame them. The grass did look greener on the other side of the fence.

By mid afternoon, a couple of men show up with a four-wheeler, a couple of suv’s and a bucket of feed.

I was slightly amused but the cows were definitely not. They paid no attention to the man with the red bucket and as he approached them they barely gave him a quick glance.

The man persisted by continually placing the feed bucket under their noses but to no avail. A few would follow him but the further he traveled the more cows would become distracted or uninterested and stop. He did finally convince one cow to follow him half way across the field until the cow lost interest and stopped to graze.

I guess that feed bucket just wasn’t worth it. It was not as flashy as the green grass. It also took more effort and focus than the lazily way with which each cow grazed.

You know this reminded me of how we are when it comes to God. The world seems so green and enticing. And God is trying to show us a better way. But we are so distracted by the concerns of this world that we barely take notice.

It will take an intentional will and much prayer to overcome the burden of distractions. We may think we are doing good. But our acts of goodness can not replace our relationship with God.

Relationships take time and our relationship with God is no different. We must be careful that we are not munching the green grass of the world. God is trying to show us something better and lead us in a direction that will strengthen our faith and bring abundant blessings.

God wants to share some important information with you.  Your very life could depend on it. So why are you grazing the grass of the world while God holds the feed bucket in pursuit of you.

He wants desperately to help you but you won’t give Him a second glance.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Matthew 16:24-26b NKJV

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