“Then he said to another, “Follow me.” “Lord,” he said, “first let me go bury my father.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”” Luke 9:59, 61-62 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/luk.9.59-62.CSB
What is our excuse for not fully following the Lord? What does it mean to fully follow the Lord? It means loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. It means to love our neighbor as ourselves by working tirelessly and sacrificially to see them reconciled to God lest they spend their eternity in hell where there is only constant pain and suffering. Why do we so quickly lose our first love? Why do we struggle to spend time with God? Time is the key indicator of love and the most essential requirement for a relationship with anyone. Yet we pray little and spend even less time in God’s word, learning from Him so that we can know Him better, love Him more as a result, and demonstrate that love by obeying everything He has commanded. We seek instead pleasure and treasure. We want comfort now rather than later, in the kingdom to come where eternity exists. This is short-sighted and foolish. Loving God most is best for our souls and relationships with God and man. His ways are the best ways to live that bring us the most peace, joy, and fulfillment. Do we lack faith that God is good or that He truly knows what is best for us? He is both our Creator and, through Christ, our Father. He loves us sacrificially, demonstrated so magnanimously at the cross, so He can be trusted completely. We must no longer hold ourselves back from fully engaging our God or His work in the world. Our souls and our culture suffer from looking back, failing to plow straight and healthy lines for the benefit of ourselves and our world. It is time now to return to the Lord, taste and see He is good, and fulfill our purpose, our mission, the Great Commission, to spend eternity fully satisfied with great joy and reward for living as faithful servants on this earth.
