Isaiah 35:8 It will be called the way of holiness

• DAY 16 BIBLE READING

Acts 18-26


• DAY16 PRAYER DEVOTIONAL

Isaiah 35:8


THE JESUS WAY – TAKING THE EASY YOKE

GK Chesterton said ‘Christianity has not been tried and found wanting as it has been found difficult and left untried.’ There is an almost universal belief in the immense difficulty of being a real Christian. However Dallas Willard reminds us that Proverbs 13:15 says that the way of the transgressor is hard and we know from observation that to depart from righteousness is to choose a life of crushing burdens, failures and disappointments.

If Jesus is ‘The Way’…. is the way that Jesus calls us to follow really a very difficult one? The Christian way of life is according to Jesus a matter of taking on an easy yoke. In all honesty most Christians find Jesus' statement more an expression of hope or even a mere wish than a statement about the substance of their lives, says Dallas Willard

The ease, the lightness and the power of his ‘way’ we rarely enjoy much less see. The early Christians were called people of the way. One of the earliest Christian teachings is called the Didache – the teaching of the 12, which essentially documents 2 ways - the way of life and the way of death. Maybe the difference between these two ways should be more of a focus for us as we pray and pursue a more intimate walk with Jesus.

That way of Life, Dallas Willard suggests is the disciplined Christian life. He says that just as a baseball player would not expect to excel when playing in the ‘Big game’ without preparing himself with seriously focussed exercise and training… so also.. to think that following Jesus is about loving our enemies, going the second mile, turning the other cheek, while living the rest of our lives as everyone else does.. is a strategy bound to fail. The spiritual disciplines are a road less traveled. .

Repentance from sin and choosing to respond to the Gospel is not a once in a life decision – it is a daily walk as is the daily life living the Christian disciplines, of prayer, fasting, study etc . This daily walk is an easy one according to Jesus. This is the highway in the wilderness that we read of in Isaiah 35:8 He calls us to follow Him on that Highway of holiness, he calls us to take up His easy yoke and follow in his footsteps

Lord I thank you that in my weakness, your grace is sufficient for me. I am unable to live a holy life by myself. You came that we might have life and have it abundantly. Help me to take on your easy yoke, to live that life of abundance and to follow you along that highway of holiness. Help me, Lord.

br />• Lord Willard, D. The Spirit of the Disciplines, 3-10