The One Thing I Want You to Know About Jesus

I met Jesus when I was twelve because my best friend in middle school invited me, an unchurched introvert who had just lost her mother, to church camp. Here’s the deal. I thought I knew Him. I mean, I’ve known Him for thirty years.

And all this time I thought I’ve known exactly who He was.

I knew that He was loving and forgiving. That He was compassionate and good. I knew that He was the Son of God and that He died on the cross to pay the debt for my sins. I knew He was my Savior.

But until I studied the book of Luke, I didn’t know how determined He was to love both you and me. I didn’t know that every choice He made on His way to the cross was intentional. He did nothing without the ultimate goal of saving the world in His mind. Jesus lived determined. That hasn’t changed.

I don’t know what you’ve been juggling this week. I don’t know what’s keeping you up at night or what’s making you anxious as soon as you wake up. But I know this:

Jesus is determined to love you through it. This is the one thing I want you to know about Jesus. He won’t give up on you. He won’t back down or walk away. He’s in this with you until the end.

Sometimes, we have to fight to stay focused in the midst of all the distractions of life. Often the hardest thing we’ll have to do is simply stay the course.

But the first step to living with determination is laying everything at Jesus’ feet. Whatever you have that is heavy on your heart, Jesus is ready to pick it up.

If having an incurable disorder has taught me anything, it’s that this life demands determination. But the abundant life Jesus promises is attainable when we make the choice to live just like He did. That’s why I wrote Determined: Living Like Jesus in Every Moment, a six-week study on the book of Luke. If you’re in need of a determined attitude, I’d love to walk through the book of Luke with you.

Studying the choices Jesus made on His way to the cross made me change the choices I make on a daily basis. It helped me realize that every choice matters and that the choice to live like Jesus is the path to abundant living. That doesn’t mean that every moment will be filled with unicorns and rainbows. Life in this broken world is hard. But it does mean that Jesus walks with us through every one of those hard moments. His presence is the abundance we need to see them through.

Determine to embrace the abundant life we are promised in Jesus. We can do it, together.

Interested in leading a group through the Determined study?

Message me here and I’ll send you the Determined leader information package, including:

• A Determined flyer you can share with your group members
• a PDF set of scripture memory cards for Luke
• an FAQ sheet for leading a group through Determined
• a PDF sample of Week 1 of the study
• a PDF sample of the Week 1 Leader Guide)