one step: Matthew 7.4

Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

I have heard the phrase, “fake it until you make it.” The problem with this is two fold: 1) if you fake it to make it, you will have to fake it the rest of your life to hold onto the place your acting has made room for, and 2) you actually can’t hold onto anything for long by faking it.

Jesus invites us to weigh what is before us and what is inside of us by the fruit produced.* It’s easy to call oneself a Christian because of the traditions and practices engaged in. Going to a building called “church” each week is a spiritual practice that does not ensure salvation. Reading the Bible each day is a spiritual practice that does not ensure salvation. Praying before each meal is a tradition that doesn’t ensure salvation.

Christ reminds us that He is the gate, and there is no other way to enter into life with Him for eternity. People may fake it, and they may fool some. They may even fool themselves, but they will not make it. The fruit of their lives will speak of their true nature.

The call of Jesus to us is to be honest. Be honest with yourself and with others. What fruit is in your life? What does that fruit say about you?

The fruit in my life is small. The fruit in my life is immature. The fruit in my life requires more nutrients and more sun and more water, but it’s good. It’s good because of Christ. I’m on the narrow road, but by grace alone. Not by faking it. By Christ I will make it.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to lean on Christ rather than Christian tradition. Perhaps God is asking you to allow Him to examine the fruit of your life. Maybe God is inviting you to the narrow path that few take. Perhaps Christ beacons you today to come to Him.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 173–177, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 7:15-20) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 7.3

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

In 1750, John Wesley, the great evangelist, pastor, theologian, creator of Methodism, and grandfather of the Holiness Movement and Pentecostalism, coined the phrase “The Golden Rule.”*

The words of Jesus now known as “The Golden Rule” invite a simple act of daily life that sums up all of the law.* To simply treat others as you would like to be treated would position us to make this world a better place. So why do we fail so consistently in this area?

When we want to be loved, we push others away. When we want to be heard, we quit listening. When we want compassion we quit caring. Why do we do this? I know I do it. Why?

We read this invitation of Jesus and think that it’s a promise of Jesus. We read “do unto others as you would have them do to you,” and we hear, “if you treat others ________, then they will treat you the same way.” This is not the case.

Many of us have attempted to be loving, and felt that we got nothing in return. We paused to listen time and time again, but the favor wasn’t returned. We showed we cared, but no one attended our needs or even saw them. So what did we do? We quit.

Jesus doesn’t promise how people will respond or when. He simply lays our the expectation of how followers of Jesus should conduct their lives.

If everyone lived out The Golden Rule, this world would be a better place. We all would be treated as God desires His children to treat one another. Sadly, we cannot count on this, we can only live this ourselves by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to ask Him for help to live The Golden Rule. Perhaps you have been expecting The Golden Rule to serve as a promise in our life that if you give a certain thing that you will get it back in a certain amount of time. Maybe God is asking you to live like Jesus did, dying to self and for those around you with no promise of return.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 172-173, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 7:12) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 7.2

Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

The temptation of any verse of promise is to take it out of context and apply it as best suits us. This is the plague of humanity: to take a promise of God and interpret it for our own kingdom.

I spent much of my life attempting to build my own kingdom. I worked harder than anyone I knew to build it from the ground up. My efforts were even made in the name of the Lord, but the Lord saw through my charades.

I prayed prayers in earnest, finding frustration as the “needs” of my life remained unmet.

This passage comes on the tail of teaching people to pray, reminding us of which desires qualify as “needs” and which do not. It comes in the context of the description of the Kingdom of Heaven and that we do not just serve a King, but the King and He is our Father.*

The next couple of verses introduce the obvious willingness of a father to provide for the needs of His children. He promises the “yes” of God to the cry for salvation and provision.

Too often in life my cries have been for luxury, escape from difficulty, and status. Seldom did I go to God and say, “Lord, please give me a life of luxury, ease, and status that makes me feel accepted and valuable.” I prayed prayers that looked righteous, but in the root of my prayers lived cries of brokenness for healing coupled with the sin of attempting to meet my needs outside of God.

If I were honest, I would have prayed, “God!! Give me the ability to heal myself through created things and give me what I need to build my own kingdom. I’ll tell people it’s for you. I promise!”

God promises to meet our needs, and to answer those prayers that advance His Kingdom inside of us and in this world. Within the promise of Jesus is also the invitation to be Kingdom people who are about their Father’s business.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to ask God to examine your heart and point out the real motivations to your prayers. Perhaps God wants to work with you to do miracles to advance His Kingdom. Maybe God is asking you to lay down your attempt to build your own kingdom. Maybe God wants you to ask Him as a good Father to meet your needs and to give up trying to work for them as an orphan.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 169-172, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 7:7-12) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 7.1

Judge not, that you be not judged.

My brain works too hard. Maybe you feel this way too, or maybe I just have to work hard to make certain things in my brain operate. Because of this, and the fact that I’m human, I look for shortcuts. Shortcuts help my brain react quickly to situations.

For example, I can look at a stovetop and get anxiety. This is the direct result of the shortcut that my brain made from the experience I had not so long ago of placing my hand on the burner (my wife did not give me genius points for that move). My brain made a shortcut that says, “stovetop bad.” Now, this isn’t entirely true. Stovetops are great and good for cooking. They are just bad for bare hands.

This shortcut isn’t always a terrible thing, but sometimes it is. This is especially the case when applied to people.

The command of Jesus not to judge does not mean that we should throw away our ability to make factual observations or to think critically. The command is not to judge; Jesus does not say not to think.* We must be able to observe that “this man steals from all people that he works with, therefore I will not hire him.” This is different than saying, “this man stole from me and from others, so he is a _____.” Judgement attaches labels to people that look like sentencing. Label-making, label-giving, and sentencing belong to God and God alone.

I have been very guilty of this. It is not fair, and it’s a prideful act of attempting to place myself in the place of God as judge. He doesn’t like that. Neither do I. Neither should you (don’t worry, I’m not judging you).

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to lay down the labels that you have placed on others, yourself, and Him. Perhaps God wants you to repent of playing God. Maybe today God wants you to start making factual observations about someone in your life that you have been judging or making excuses for. Perhaps God wants you to ask Him for labels to put on you and others and Him.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 164-165, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 7:1-6) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 6.12

…do not be anxious about your life… which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

I have seen many “guaranteed” get-rich-quick schemes, and I’m pretty sure they all fall short of their promise. There is a fail-hard-quick scheme that works every time though: worrying and then expecting that to make a difference. Not only does Jesus promise this truth, but if that were not enough (and it should be), I have done a lot of worrying over my lifetime. My experience in worry has done nothing but confirm the words of Jesus: it did nothing for me.

In 1908 Robert Yerkes and John Dodson created the Inverted-U Theory. This theory suggested that a particular range of stress increased productivity until it crossed a certain threshold. This amount of stress would then leave the worker at a maximum capacity of productivity until the stress levels crossed another threshold, then causing productivity to crash.

While worry and anxiety are forms of stress, no amount of them result in changed situations. Typically worry freezes us and sends us into cycles of unproductive efforts and poor judgement. Worry does not give us freedom, it does not clothe or feed us, and it does not make life better.

Why do I continue to worry then?

Though I’m sure that I need to explore this more, my worry stems from either a) I do not see God as my Father, therefore I do not see myself as a son, b) I do not think God to be the kind of Father who takes care of His children, or c) both.

I need to talk to the Lord about this. I need to take steps.

Today, take a step with me.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to abandon the fruitless effort of worry. Maybe today God wants you to trust that He is the kind of Father that takes care of His kids. Perhaps He wants you to allow yourself to see Him as Father and yourself as His child.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

sign up just below for a daily reminder of the one step devotional. click here to return to devotional list.

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 156-163, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 6:25-34) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).