We saw in the account of the wedding at Cana, that not only do we need to invite Jesus into our lives and the situations we face, but we also need to do what He says. And I’ve been thinking about the need to ‘do what He says’ ever since.
On one level, it sounds so simple, but how often do we invite Jesus in and ask for His help and then we don’t do what He says. Maybe what He asks us to do seems silly or maybe it’s just not how we wanted Him to do things.
One hundred and fifty gallons (which is how much water those stone jars held) is a lot of water. And they didn’t have a hose or a tap back then, so that would be a lot of work to fill those jars. There’s a significant investment here by the servants before they have any idea what Jesus has planned. They might well have felt quite foolish as they went back and forth carrying water to fill the jars. And yet if they had refused to fill the jars, there would have been no water to turn into wine.
Jesus always goes where He is invited (as Shawn said) and He is always bringing about transformation that brings life but often we are not willing to do what He says.
Personally, I’ve realized that I often expect to sit back and watch Him work (“over to you Jesus”) and so I miss the ‘do what He says’ step.
Here’s the thing – we cannot invite Jesus into our lives, ignore what He says and expect Him to keep the wine flowing!
And yet so often that’s exactly what we do:
– We ask Him to grow us and make us more godly while continuing to spend little to no time with Him.
– We ask Him to help us not give in to temptation while continuing to put ourselves in situations where we will be tempted.
– We ask Him to change the hearts of our family or those around us, while continuing to refuse to change our own hearts.
We must be people who do what He says.
When we do, the transformation is miraculous and more than we asked or imagined!
Jesus didn’t just turn a few bottles of water into wine so they could just about make it to the end of the wedding and He didn’t make wine that was just ordinary. Jesus made enough wine to fill roughly seven hundred and fifty wine bottles and it was better than their best wine (with which they had begun the wedding).
Jesus won’t fix every problem we have, in the way we want them fixed. But if we invite Him into the situation and if we do what He says, then, I believe, He will bring transformation that brings life. And that life will be more than we imagined could ever come out of that situation, issue or problem.
So let’s be people who not only invite Jesus into every area of our lives and every situation we face, but who also do what he says. Even when it isn’t what we were expecting or would prefer. Even when it’s inconvenient!
And may we experience and enjoy the amazing life that He always brings!