I don’t consider myself a picky eater, but there are a few things I don’t like. Oysters. Who in the world was the first person that thought it would be a good idea to eat an oyster? “Look, someone sneezed in a shell. I think I’ll have a bite.” That just doesn’t make sense to me. Onions are also on my list. If there’s a food that can make your breath create a 5-foot gap between you and anyone you’re wanting to talk to, it can’t taste that good. Tomatoes. I really don’t like tomatoes. I never have. I think it started when I was a kid. There was a girl, who was a few years younger than me, walking around eating a green tomato like an apple and I can remember thinking, “if she can do it, I can do it”…Well, I couldn’t. And I still can’t.

One of the foods I never could have imagined I would have eaten is guacamole. Because it’s green! Growing up, if a food was green it’s because there was mold on it. I don’t eat mold. That’s gross. I tried it on a cheese once. They tried to trick me by calling it blue…It wasn’t. It was green and it was gross.  So, if a food was green, in my mind it was moldy and I wasn’t going to eat it. Then I married a Puerto Rican. Everything changed after that.  She was finally talked me into eating guacamole and it changed my life! Guac is absolutely one of my favorite things to eat now. I mean I love it! If we’re ever at at restaurant together and I order guacamole, I’ll warn you now, don’t you try to dip a chip in there! Not only will you not have a chip in your hand when you pull it back, but you also may be missing a finger or two. It’s crazy how much I was missing out on! It’s crazy that the thing I thought I would never eat was the very thing that changed my eating habits and now I couldn’t imagine not having it. When considering a diet change, one of the questions I ask is, “Can I still eat guacamole?” And, the only reason I tried it was because I trusted Tamara enough to taste it.

I believe that God wants guacamole in your life. Not literally…Well, maybe literally, but His plans for your future are beyond incredible. Do you know that God is calling us all to something better in our life? Your life may be great right now, but did you know that Jesus has plans for an even better life. No matter where you are, what you have done or are currently doing, no matter what’s going on in your life Jesus is calling us to something better. You and I both, we have a next step. Jesus is leading us to something better. Something more. A lot of times we’ll blame Jesus and say He’s holding out on us and that’s why we don’t have it yet but that’s usually not the case. Most of the time it’s us that’s keeping us from experiencing the fullness of what God has for us.  I just want to point out 3 things that commonly keep us from taking our next step and give some encouragement along the way.

Comfort

One of the obstacles in taking our next step, may be trust, but more often than not it’s complacency or comfort.  When we get happy or comfortable with the way things are and we just don’t think about the fact that there’s more or we don’t want to leave the comfort we currently have. I’m not saying you need to be constantly looking for ways to make your life miserable, remember, Jesus is always calling us to something better. One of the things He’s constantly calling us to, is to experience Him more. And if you’re anything like me, when things are going great, you just don’t think about it. Sure it crosses our mind when life is a little crappy, but when we are doing well we don’t think about the fact Jesus is still leading us.

You can see an example of this in Mark 6:45. The disciples just saw Jesus do something they never imagined possible. They just saw Him feed well over 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish with plenty of food left over and immediately Jesus instructed His disciples to move to the other side of the lake. They just had an experience with Jesus they’ve never had before and Jesus pointed them in a direction where they would experience something more. I don’t think Jesus is trying to be a killjoy here. I actually think it’s the opposite. I believe Jesus wants us to be in awe of how powerful He is, and I believe He wants us to praise Him. But I don’t think He wants us just stand around staring with our mouth dragging the floor until the power of that experience/encounter wears off and then start looking for the next emotional high. I believe that Jesus allows us to experience His power to equip us, build our faith, and enable us to take the steps we need to take in order to experience Him even more. That’s not ignoring what Jesus has done, that’s moving forward in life in a constant state of awe and living with the power of what He’s done.

But we have to remember, pursuing comfort in life and pursuing Jesus are two very different things. Pursuing Jesus and following His lead is comforting, because we know if He’s called us to something He’s not going to bail on us, but pursuing comfort will usually lead us away from Jesus.

We give up

My wife and I don’t have any of the two legged kind of kids. But we do have the four legged kind. Much like your two legged kind they are fun, expensive, poop on the floor from time to time, drive me crazy and I love them more than you can imagine. I trust my dogs. I know that when I let them go outside and play for a bit, they generally won’t go anywhere. As long as another dog doesn’t show up gross the street or a bird doesn’t fly by their head, I really don’t have to worry about them when they’re outside. I noticed something this morning, though. I let them out and was going to take care of a couple of things in the kitchen while they were out, but every couple of seconds do you know what I would do? I would stop whatever I was in the middle of and walk over to the window to check on them. Again, I trust my pups, but I wanted to go and check on them just to make sure they were ok. Just to be sure nothing had happened or some weird animal from the swamp next to us decided to make an appearance. I kept going over just so I could keep them in my sight simply because I love them. If I naturally do that for my dogs and you do that kind of thing for your kids, how much more will our Heavenly Father, who is perfect, keep an eye on us? How much more will He take care of us? How much more is He able to do for us?

I have a tendency to forget that truth when I’m in the middle of a battle or I’ve been in it for a while. The same thing happened to Jesus’ disciples in Mark 6.  When they were heading across the lake. They encountered a wind storm and began taking some pretty heavy damage from the waves. What I noticed in vs. 47-48 is the storm started in the “evening” and Jesus came to them “just before dawn”. That’s a long time to be battling the wind and waves in the middle of the lake! I don’t know if you’ve ever been out in the middle of the water when the wind and waves have more control over your boat than you do, but that’s terrifying! That happened to me once but it was only for about 15 minutes or so and I was basically peeing on my self the entire 15 minutes. I didn’t realize the human body could hold that much urine. What amazed me is the disciples kept trying to move forward. They didn’t stop fighting. It was rough and it was a long fight but they didn’t quit.

I looked up the word dawn (just to double check my time gap) and I saw the definition we all know, “the first appearance of light in the sky before sunrise”. But then I saw an additional definition that blew me away. It said, “the beginning of a phenomenon or period of time, especially one considered favorable”. Wow! So, with that definition you could read  vs. 48 like this, ‘He saw them being battered by the as they continued to row because the wind was against them and shortly before the beginning of a phenomenon and considerable favorable period of time Jesus went out to them.’

Did you catch that? They were at the end of their fight and didn’t know it. Jesus had His eye on them, and was praying for them (vs.46) the entire time and they didn’t realize it. They were about to experience a phenomenon in their life and had no clue it was coming. What would have happened if they stopped rowing? They would have missed the breakthrough. They wouldn’t have experienced the phenomenon that takes place when Jesus steps onto the scene.

Sometimes the opposition or challenges we face when we’re trying to get somewhere doesn’t seem worth it. Or it just seems like we’re not strong enough. Or God forgot about us and we just stop moving forward. Don’t stop! Don’t give up! Keep rowing! You might be at the ‘just before dawn’ part of your story and about to experience Jesus, freedom, and victory in a way you never imagined possible. He’s got His eye on you. He’s bigger than what you’re facing. The next step may be a challenging one, but you can do it. You’ve come this far. Don’t quit just before the phenomenon takes place.

Uncertainty

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a fan of spiders. Not a fan may be a bit of an understatement because they often cause the same effect that being stuck in the water with waves stronger than my boat caused ( ^^^ see above^^^). There have been times when my wife and I are driving down the road and I pull over and get out of the car because a spider crawled across the dash board. The bad part is I wouldn’t get back in the car until she killed it. And she couldn’t just tell me she killed it, she had to show me. Because I wanted to be sure that evil creature was sitting right beside satan in the deepest part of hell before I would get back in the car. You may laugh at me, but laugh away! I don’t think there’s any thing wrong with making sure I’m stepping into a vehicle that doesn’t have a living or dead (she had to throw it out too) spider in it.

One of the things that can keep us from taking our next step is uncertainty if God is leading us there. We’re just not sure it’s God we’re hearing and that makes sense because we have a spiritual enemy who is trying to lead us away from what God has for us. He’ll try to motivate action by using things like guilt, condemnation, fear, anxiety or worry and if your anything like me we can confuse those things with God’s direction.  And to be honest God never puts those things on us, but sometimes the direction God is leading us can freak us out at first. Guilt and condemnation never come from God. If you’re feeling those things, that’s our spiritual enemy.  But sometimes where He’s leading us is intimidating. He’s calls us to things that we can only accomplish with of Him. So when we see our next step, it may cause a little fear. So, it’s easy to get to a place of uncertainty. You don’t have to feel bad about that. The same thing happened to the disciples.

When they first saw Jesus, they thought He was a ghost (vs. 49). The only thing that cleared that up for them was the fact that Jesus immediately made himself known (vs. 50). Knowing that Jesus is the one giving you direction seems to change things. It seems to give us hope and encourages us to take that step because we know He’s going to help us finish what He’s calling us to.  Jesus says, “my sheep will know my voice.” I don’t think He said that to make us feel bad about the uncertainty we face. I believe He said that to encourage us to listen for Him. I believe Jesus is giving us permission to ask, “is that you, Jesus? ” I believe Jesus is telling us He will always identify Himself. We see it happen with Gideon, the disciples in this story, when Peter asks for clarity, when Thomas asks to feel the holes in His hand after the resurrection. Time and time again we see Jesus bringing clarity to uncertainty.

We have a tendency to let our challenges or worries be the focal point of our prayer life. And I believe it’s ok to talk to God about what is worrying us, but the only thing that is going to bring peace to those situation and clarity to uncertainty is asking Jesus to reveal Himself. That’s where our hope comes from. As soon as Jesus steps onto the scene, we find peace in the midst of chaos (vs. 51) and the courage we need to take the steps He’s leading us to.

Where Jesus is leading you is far better than you could imagine. What God has in store for you will blow your mind. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you’ve been. He’s leading us to something better spiritually, physically, and mentally. Don’t let the comfort we find keep us from experiencing the blessing He has for us. The blessing you currently have isn’t supposed to create complacency, it’s supposed to be a taste of what’s to come. Let it move you forward. And in your journey, remember the promises. Remember that you will get to where He has told you to go, but you have to keep moving forward. It may feel like it sometimes, but He still has His eyes on you. He’s not finished with you and He hasn’t given up on you. Don’t give up. Don’t let the presence of a battle create an attitude of defeat. And keep your focus on Jesus. If you’re unsure, ask for clarity. Find hope in His presence.