Jesus is our role model

1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1Jn 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Jesus is our ROLE MODEL.
Jesus in the One we need to emulate.
Jesus is the One we need to follow and NO other.

If we say we BELONG to Jesus we need to live as Jesus lived.

Jesus did NOT call all the people He came in contact with to be PHYSICAL followers of Him. He did call ALL to be His spiritual followers, but He did not tell every person He healed to give up everything and follow Him. He did not tell every person that listened to Him that they needed to leave their homes, their jobs, their families and go with Him. Jesus gave many, many lessons to those He knew would never leave their families, their homes, their jobs.

When we are told to walk as He walked, we are being told to live the spiritual life He led, to live the moral life that He did, to live the self-less life that He gave us as an example, to live connected fully with the Father. Anyone who actually believes that walking as Christ walked means PRETENDING (with great delusion) to be Christ is far off the mark. We are to live towards our spiritual life, not our carnal life.

If we are abiding in our Savior we are living a life PLEASING TO GOD.

Our Savior lived a life PLEASING to God.
Our Savior lived a life fully dependent upon God.
Our Savior did NOTHING in and of Himself.
Our Savior did GOD'S WILL, not His own.

You wonder how could the two wills be opposed?

Luk 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

This is how our Savior lived His life.

He felt His humanity every bit as much as we do.
He didn't WANT to suffer. He didn't WANT to be betrayed. He didn't WANT to be tortured, to be ridiculed. He didn't WANT to be murdered. He KNEW what was going to happen and He did NOT want to go through it all. He wanted His CUP- the bitter dregs of what lay ahead to be taken away from Him so He wouldn't have to drink it, so He wouldn't have to endure all the pain, all the unspeakable agony. But more than facing all that torture HE didn't want His OWN will to be done, He wanted His FATHER'S WILL to be done.

We have to WANT God's will to be done over our own will.

The two wills- man and God's will war against each other because sin separated us from the natural desire for God's will to be done in us.

Jesus revealed His humanity in this statement- NOT MY WILL. Not what He wanted, not what He desired and YES, He did WANT something contrary to the will of God, HE DID, He said it HIMSELF!

NOT MY WILL.

To say those words meant that His will was contrary to the Father's will or else He never would have had to say those words at all.

NOT MY WILL.

BUT THINE BE DONE.

This is HOW we must live. We must submit to the WILL of God, not to our own will which is contrary to God's.

If we are to walk even as Christ's walked then we have to comprehend that our Savior's humanity was as real as ours is. That He faced the same temptations we face- only probably worse. He did. Too many people want to believe that He was above even the idea of temptation, that it was impossible to tempt Him because He couldn't be tempted. Tempting someone that can't be tempted is pointless. Jesus WAS TEMPTED and the possibility for Him to give in to temptation existed! He could ONLY be victorious over sin if it were a real possibility for Him to sin.

He CHOSE to follow God's will, not HIS OWN.

This is what we must do as we fight this Spiritual war. We have to understand that we are in a constant battle of wills ours against God's, with Satan urging us on to follow our own will.

Satan starts teaching us at a very young age that our own desires, that our own will is more important than anything else. That abiding in only ourselves and walking after only our own ways is what's best for us. Satan teaches us that to deprive ourselves is a bad, bad thing, totally unnecessary. Satan teaches us that to be served is better than to serve. Satan teaches us that resenting others is a good thing, a natural thing, an expected thing, that to receive a reward for our service is expected.

Jesus teaches us this--

Luk 6:34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to

If we do for others because we are hoping receive in kind we are doing it for the wrong reasons yet we are told that is exactly what we are to expect. You do this for someone and they are obligated to repay in kind. We grow up on this stuff!

Being the servant is NOT something we are encourage towards especially here in the United States.

Yet we MUST be servants.

Our Savior was a SERVANT!

And our SAVIOR told us that if we want to be first we must be last!

Such contrary teachings to our society.

Looking out for number one is how we are raised and that number one is always self. This is completely contrary to our Savior's desire for us. We are to look out for God, for others, NOT OURSELVES! Yet it's become so ingrained in us that we call it second nature, is it any wonder we find it so incredibly hard to walk as Christ walked? We've been living lives completely contrary to God's will, taught to do so, encouraged to do so.

May God help us all!

Our only hope is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of Christ!
Our only hope it the MERCY, the GRACE, the FORGIVENESS of our SAVIOR!

Our only hope is found in HIM and not in us.

May HIS WILL, may GOD'S WILL be done in us!

All through HIS LOVE!