Walk This Way

I'm a rocker from way back.  In fact, if you were to catch me alone and listening to the music of my youth, you may chuckle at how loud the music is playing.  Of course, I would be too mature now to play it loud with other people around, but it still happens once in a while!

Aerosmith had a hit song called Walk This Way many years ago, and it talked about the kind of swagger necessary if you wanted to impress others.  Somehow, even though I still like the beat, that message has lost its luster for me.

I am captivated by another voice that tells me I should walk a different way. . . . .

In Ephesians 5:1-2 it tells us how we should be walking as followers of Jesus.  This is what it says:  "Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

Walk.  An action word.  One that invites us to not only hear what God says to us, but to do what God's shows us to do.  Did you hear that last part---God has shown us how to walk in the way of love.  We don't have to figure it out on our own, we have already been given a clear picture of what that should look like in Jesus.

So we are to walk in love just like Jesus did.  Here are some things that this means for us:
1.  Jesus walked in love for others, and that means you.
  I have had conversations with people recently who have had some trouble accepting that Jesus really loves them, and that this love is such that He is not waiting for an opportunity to cut and run.  His love is legit and it runs deep in Him.  He is in this life with us for the long-haul.
2.  Jesus walked sacrificially.
  He was not as concerned about Himself as He was about bringing freedom and life for others.  His love walk meant that He was committed to meeting those in need right in the middle of their issues, their pain, their loss--and we know that when you join someone in their pain that can mean that that investment will require something of yourself in terms of resources:  time, money, encouragement, support and on and on.  Jesus was and is so concerned about bringing and maintaining life and freedom in others that He was and is willing to really invest Himself in them--and that means you!
3.  Jesus walked because of His love for His Father.
  Even though Jesus sacrificed everything for people like you and I, His primary motivation was based on His love for His Father in Heaven.  Everything Jesus taught and did reflected this passion that He had for the Father.  This was His guiding light that oriented His thoughts and decisions.  When He was stressed He laid it out for His Father to hear.  Jesus found His comfort in His Father, and He pointed others to find their comfort with Him as well.

Have you ever put in a hard days work of physical labor and then walked into the kitchen and the scent of the meal being cooked instantly made your mouth water?  Then you sit at the table and take that first bite and it is just so satisfying!!

This is the kind of image that helps us to picture the kind of love that Jesus walked--and its fragrance is so pleasing to the Father and to those who receive it that it makes your mouth water and you long for more.

We should be walking this way--showing the same kind of love that Jesus showed us.  And when we share this with each other it's just like a banquet----only tastier!

BT