Growth means facing our fears and stepping out of our comfort zone.
Remember the three wise men who brought gifts to Jesus after He was born? Before visiting Jesus, they stopped and talked to the local king: Herod. They asked where the new King, the Messiah had been born.
Matthew (2:3) records the response: “When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.”
No surprise. The world is full of people who are disturbed by the news that a King has been born.
Herod is so crazed with power that when he finds out the news that the Messiah has been born, his first response is to try to find Him and kill Him. The people of Jerusalem also somehow seem to know that this Messiah came to save them from their sins, and they wanted no such salvation.
Why do we resist letting Christ be King? I suggest it’s because we believe a lie. Herod believed the lie that he could hold on to power and that power would protect him. But he died, just like everyone else, and all his power was stripped from him.
Where are we unwilling to let Christ reign? In our fears? In our lusts? In our pride? In our greed?
We all have a line someplace in our souls. On one side we say “yes” to Christ; on the other side we say “no.” In between is the lie. That is our spiritual journey. Find the “no,” and we face the lie. Let Jesus tell us the truth, so that another “no” can be turned to a “yes.”
I’m not saying this is easy. It requires great courage to find the border of our faith—but that is where Christ takes us—out of our comfort zone, out into the deep. But it is out in the deep that we let down our nets and discover what we never dreamed was there.
Dwight
