Versus What would Jesus do?
Today’s topic is what would Jesus do versus what would Jesus have me do?
Powerful Difference in these Questions
A friend brought up a very simple yet powerful difference between these two questions the other day.
No one is perfect except for Jesus. And of course he would choose to do something really amazing and powerful and perfect every time.
However, I am not perfect
AND Jesus can still use me in my imperfections.
One is more DOable
So if I was to ask myself, “what would Jesus do?”
I might be overwhelmed by the answer and might think I can’t do that because maybe I couldn’t do it in whatever the situation is or how I’m perceiving the situation.
It might just be too difficult for me to actually do what Jesus would do.
However, if I change the question and ask, what would Jesus have me do that opens up the possibilities to so many more things and more doable things that are going to make me confident in moving forward.
It is easy for self-doubt to still creep in when Jesus asks us to do something.
But having that perspective of it’s what he wants me to do, can hopefully give me the courage to move forward.
Putting in Time limits is OK!
Sometimes when I’m doing my to-do list for the day I have a spot that says, “what would Jesus have me do?”
And if I had a really busy day, I would put in the stipulation, what would Jesus have me do with two minutes?
Because sometimes that’s all you have in your day.
Sometimes you might have an extra hour and that’s awesome. You could say, what would Jesus have me do with this hour?
It’s okay if you only have one or two minutes, Jesus can still use you to do something incredible. And it might just be texting a friend.
My scary answer, became less scary as I got clarity.
So right now I’m going to try this. I’m going to ask, what would Jesus have me do with five minutes today and I’m gonna breathe and I’m gonna pause.
And it’s like a little prayer.
“Jesus, What would you have me do today?”
And instantly what pops into my mind is I have a friend that I’m going to reach out to and I’m gonna text her or call and ask what it is that she needs. I know she’s going through a trying time
and maybe I’ll actually offer to just bring her dinner, which will take me longer than five minutes. But I do have a double frozen meal in my freezer. So actually I could easily do that. As I take a minute to ponder what God is asking me to do.
I can do that because it won’t take me any longer to put two of those frozen meals in the instant pot. They both fit. So there we go. That was quick. That was easy to ask. And it scared me a little bit when I got the answer, but then I pondered, I breathed again, I stayed calm and I pondered, how can I do this?
And an answer was given to me. So sometimes it is a little scary to ask what would Jesus have me? And that’s okay. It’s okay to be scared, but it is also okay, I think to give those parameters with five minutes with, you know, one minute, what would Jesus have me do?
Or when a situation arises, like maybe you’re in the store and someone is grumpy to you, you could ask what would Jesus have me do?
And maybe Jesus would just have you smile. Or maybe Jesus would have you talk to the person who knows, but. Asking that question can give you an answer and by asking it, what would Jesus have me do? It puts it into a different perspective that makes it a bit more doable. I can’t wait to hear how this tool works for you this week.