I was listening to a Francis Chan podcast and well, he keeps it real. He talks about the disciple Matthew and his call to follow Jesus. He said he always looked at it from a perspective that Matthew had to leave his whole life behind. But then he goes on to talk about the reputation that Jesus had throughout the land. Matthew and many others had heard about Jesus.
They had heard about the weather obeying Him, demons fearing him, and him healing the sick. So being called to follow Jesus meant the world. Whatever life Matthew had really was irrelevant compared to what was happening.
It made me think even more about it all. This was the ultimate job promotion for Matthew, to be able to follow Christ. We rarely think of the fact that when Jesus called him, He was saving him from the life that he had.
Francis Chan says that there’s this human nature that really doesn’t want to know what God’s will is for our lives. Because the world is wicked, it twists things around completely. The world has twisted things like authority to seem like it’s something bad, but it’s actually a good thing. The world would have you think that being under authority means that you don’t have any control yourself, but in all actuality being under the authority of Jesus Christ is the best thing that could ever happen in your life.
Human nature would have us believe that it’s too scary to truly know what God’s will is for our lives. He might send us somewhere we don’t want to go, as Christians you will be persecuted, you’re going to face all these trials and tribulations, and that’s scary.
We don’t want to have to deal with it. We are fearful of what we believe the worst case scenario would be. But the more I thought about it and the more Francis Chan explained it, the more I realized in all actuality the worst case scenario is to not be under God’s authority.