The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “follow me.” John 1:43
Jesus decided.
These two words catch me, because after the Baptism in the Jordan, Luke says Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit;” Mark describes Him as “driven by the Holy Spirit;” and Matthew writes that he is “led by the Holy Spirit.” So by default I imagine Jesus – as Man – being moved and compelled by the Spirit, almost as if he doesn’t have a say in what he does. He’s given himself to be filled with the Spirit, right, so now the Spirit takes over? But no, John says, Jesus decided. The Greek for “decide” means the making of a very strong choice; setting a heart toward a purpose, and doing it.
I can’t guess at how clearly he knew what he must do or where he must go. Were choices ever left to him the way sometimes ours are left to us? “Choose, and I will bless you,” God sometimes seems to say, and I wonder if Jesus, in his experience as fully Man, sometimes had to make this kind of choice?
Regardless: even if his Divine heart knew the steps to take before he took them, it was his own will that had to decide to act. He purposed his heart, and he accomplished that purpose. He did the thing.
This encourages me to decide, and to carry my decision through.
What choice has God set before you?
Wednesdays In The Word – where have you been? It’s been awhile (like, a long while) since the last Wednesday Word post. But it’s a Brave April, right? So I’m going to quit waiting for the right time and just jump back in. Some of my favorite posts from this series happened last April – like this one, about faithfulness. You can see the whole series, here.
A bit of housekeeping: I think I’ve finally gotten the RSS feed through MailChimp working right, so if you signed up with my newsletter signup sheet (maybe even eons ago) to receive all future posts in your email, it should be working, and you should be reading this now. I haven’t seen what it will look like, so if it’s really horrible I’ll get back to work. 😉
On that note, some of you will be receiving this post from two servers – the MailChimp RSS feed and the WordPress mail generator I’ve always used. I will be streamlining these soon! Come on over and let me know if things are working, and – if you receive the post in double portion – which email format you prefer (the one by MailChimp should say MailChimp somewhere on it.)
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Just to let you know I got your post by email- thanks for sorting that out! I like your post too. It’s true that even when the Holy Spirit is leading us we still have to decide, and it’s interesting to think about how that worked for Jesus.
Thank you, Carly! I’m trying to get the newsletter thing sorted, too. I’m so grateful you’re still here. 🙂
this is so spot on for me right now. and fits perfectly with the trailer i just watched for “Last Days in the Desert”, a film account of Jesus’ forty days in the desert which i can’t wait to see. both your words and the snippet of the film, as well as my own heart-brain speak to me of the struggle between trusting the spirit of truth and trusting the doubt and fear… and the *decision* to pursue that spirit relentlessly.
(see trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDfySDiGeh8)
“the struggle between trusting the spirit of truth and trusting the doubt and fear… and the *decision* to pursue that spirit relentlessly.” I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, too. Yesterday I watched Return of the King with my more introverted son (he stayed home from church sick, and it was a rare few hours alone together – serious gift) and I kept tearing up at the portrayal of choosing the “spirit of truth” as you say, and rejecting doubt and fear. I was moved by the strength of purpose and honor that both came out of the hearts of the characters…and that grew up into their hearts with each brave choice they made.