One of the central messages of God's Word is the lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. Jesus is referred to as Lord 99 times in the book of Acts and 616 in the whole New Testament.
There is a very strong emphasis on Jesus being Lord of our lives. Lord means master, the one who calls the shots and the one who determines where we go and what we do. A life lived with faith in God will always result in a life lived under the lordship of Jesus Christ. When we surrender our lives to Jesus, spiritual maturity starts to happen.
Acts 2:36 declares, "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." Because Jesus sits on the throne, acting as mediator between the Father and us, we can now give our lives to Him in complete surrender.
Many Christians believe that when we make Jesus the Lord of our lives, we will become Christ-like in a blink of an eye. Nothing could be more stressful and overwhelming than trying to change by our own strength just to fit a cultural (not spiritual) concept.
While submitting to Jesus's lordship involves spiritual maturity, the maturity that we achieve is not so much a destination that we must reach, but a process that we go through. Colossians 2:6 says, "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him." Walking with Jesus shows us that lordship is not so much a one-time transforming experience but a progressive and transformational process as we are changed from glory to glory.
If you've been following Jesus for a very long time and you've tried to change your ways to fit the "Christian mold" of the goody-goody person who shouts, "Hallelujah!" while raising their hands in worship, then there's a very big possibility that you're going to get burnt out doing so or probably already have been burnt out at some point.
Spiritual maturity is not about us fitting ourselves into a mold, but us giving ourselves to Christ and allowing Him to do the transformational work in our lives. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
As we submit ourselves to Christ and walk with Him, we start our journey of spiritual maturity and progressively become transformed into His image and likeness through His power and grace. It's never about us going somewhere, but about whom we go with in this journey of life. Question is, are you walking with and in Christ?
