Decision

Jesus is calling you. He is calling you by name. Have you responded?

Some of us have notable decision experiences. We can point to a particular day when we decided to follow Jesus. A radical change in our lives usually follows this kind of experience. As Mary Magdalene says in The Chosen, “I was one way, and now I am completely different, and the thing that happened in between was Him.” 

Some of us, however, have a different kind of experience. We cannot point to a particular day when we said “yes” to Jesus. Instead, our decision was a gradual one. Like melting snow, the melting of our hearts happens over time, and our decision to follow Jesus becomes stronger each year.
The kind of decision experience we have is not important. What is important is that we make a personal and conscious decision to follow Jesus — a decision to be his friend, to be his disciple.

The question we must all ask is this one: Have we responded to Jesus’s call? Have we decided to follow him?
 
​If you have not yet made a personal and conscious decision to follow Jesus, here is a prayer you can pray. Pray it every day for a week.

Dear Lord Jesus. I thank you that you love me and have a wonderful plan for my life. I thank you that you have sought me out and have begun to reveal yourself to me. I know that I have sinned, and my life is in great need of your love and forgiveness. I want to repent of walking contrary to your ways and ask you to forgive me and create in me a new heart. As I begin my new walk with you, I pray that I will love you more deeply each day. As I submit myself to your covenant family, the Church, help me to walk humbly and discover my place in your family. Thank you for this new beginning! Amen.*


* From Jeff Cavins, The Activated Disciple: Taking Your Faith to the Next Level (Ascension Press), p. 53.