One King. Two Ways Of Living In His World.

I learned that following Jesus means learning His way and changing my choices to match.

But what exactly makes His way different from mine?

My instinct was to start with behavior.

But the deeper I looked, the more I realized the difference begins further back.

During my research, I started calling Jesus’ way the King’s way and my way the self-rule way.

One thing became instantly clear: I can’t live according to both because they operate from fundamentally different systems of values and beliefs.

As I was writing this, God gently exposed something in my own heart. I realized I wasn’t writing from a place of surrender. I had specific people in mind, and I found myself examining them instead of myself.

The difference between us wasn’t that I had a better heart—it was my circumstances. I don’t have the things I was quietly judging them for caring so much about, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want those things.

Before I could keep writing about following Jesus, I had to stop and deal with that pesky plank sticking out of my eye.

I say this because I’m writing as someone who is still very much in the trenches. If these words have any value, it’s not because I’ve mastered them. It’s because God is patient enough to stick with me as I fumble through His Word and His world.

As annoying as that little encounter with truth was, it showed me first hand that these two ways of living aren’t theoretical.They show up in the ordinary moments of everyday life.

I began comparing them and noticed that beneath nearly every decision lies the same question:

Who am I trying to make much of?

The King—or myself?

Take a look at this:

Ahhh….

Maybe that’s why starting with behavior never quite works.

Behavior isn’t the starting point. It’s the fruit.

The King’s way and the self-rule way begin with two fundamentally different ways of seeing reality.

Following Jesus begins with recognizing the King’s authority, trusting His perspective over my own, and choosing to live as though what He says about reality is true.

There is one world.

And there are two ways of living in it:

The King’s way. Or the self-rule way.

The question isn’t, “Will I be good?”

It’s, “Will I live as though God is King, or will I continue living as though I am?”

Okay. I understand our ways are different. But if His is better than mine, why is it so hard for me to actually follow?