Have you ever heard the term “Jesus story?” Until this spring I had never heard that before. The term I was used to was “testimony.” After first introduction to the term Jesus story, I genuinely thought it possessed the exact same definition as testimony. As it turns out, yet again, I was mistaken. To quote a teacher from high school: “I thought I had made many mistakes in my life, but it turns out I was mistaken and have only made a few.” Plagued by mistakes, the Lord is constantly lifting the veil, as a means to change my mind and reveal His truth to me. He is systematically replacing everything I thought I knew that I gleaned from my reader interpretation of His word rather than what the author (Jesus) was actually trying to tell me. “Author intent versus reader interpretation.” I’m saying all this is to express that only now have I finally understand what it means to say, “Jesus is no longer just my Savior, he is my Lord!”
I never openly made this statement in my walk with Christ, because I simply didn’t understand it. Today I can confidently state what the Bible says is true about Jesus being Lord of my life. Since the Bible was originally written in Greek, and likely many other languages, before being translated to English, word meaning can’t be taken at face value. That is where eating the word comes into play (if you don’t know what this means, please ask me. I’ll do my best to explain how it works). Upon eating 1 Peter 3:10-12, this is the Biblical definition of Lord:
This definition itself can seem a bit confusing as it appears to remove the idea that humans have free will choices to make about walking with Jesus or not. God could very easily make every knee bow and every lip praise His name instantaneously. Instead, he gives us the unique opportunity to choose it ourself. Although I don’t have children, I would guess this concept is similar to how parents allow a child to learn their lesson the hard way because it will take deeper roots as a result. Jesus allows us to make mistakes so that when we do choose to make him Lord of our life we have legs to stand on (“Pillars of Faith”).
My previous walk with Jesus relied on the fact that he would save me, but the significant lacking was that I didn’t give him the reins. Jesus wasn’t in control of my life, I was basically “allowing” him to be part of my life. Jokes on me though, as Jesus really wasn’t in my life, at least not as an outward expression of Him in my everyday life. Although Jesus doesn’t leave us nor forsake us, he certainly doesn’t hang around when we’re actively pursuing sin over him.
Today I finally understand that I have failed to make Jesus Lord of my life and I’m choosing to change that. I have several pillars of faith that led me here, but those are better told in person.
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