Fan vs Follower

Fall is an excellent time of the year! The leaves are beautiful, the weather turns, and it’s football season. 

This brings out the fans everywhere who cheer and represent their team. From college to the NFL, this is becoming a pastime in America as the weekends are full of football games.

Every year at every game, we see crazy fans. These are the ones that paint their chest and don’t wear a coat or shirt in freezing weather. Or they paint their face, tattoo their team logo somewhere weird, and go completely crazy for the games. They scream at the TV or at the players from the stands. They debate plays and calls in barbershops, restaurants, at family meals, and at work. They go all in and live for the weekend to watch or go to the games.

Oh yes, these are crazy fans. 

Do you know one? Are you one?

There is nothing wrong with being a fan; it gives fun moments and helps make memories with family and friends. It‘s great to be with those you love and to have fun doing something. Sports help us do this, and I hope we all experience this.

But when it comes to Jesus, we must move from a fan of Jesus to a follower of Jesus!

He wants all of us, and He deserves our lives. This is how we are to follow Him. 

“Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’”

Matthew 22:37

Notice that we love Him with ALL our heart, soul, and mind.

This is letting God have more of us as we walk with Him. The best life is living the God-life. Meaning we choose to be a follower of Jesus and give Him authority to lead our lives.

Fans can be loyal forever or change when their team does terribly. Fans range in commitment, but a follower is there till the end.

Jesus asks us to follow Him. He leads the way, determines how we live, gives direction for our path, and provides what we need.

So, are you following Jesus?

Please don’t settle for being a fan of Jesus; reach forward and be a follower of Jesus! He’s ready to do great things through you.

Here are three qualities of being a follower of Jesus.

First, He’s the leader.

This means He leads our lives. He’s in charge, not us. This is BIG because by default, we want to be in charge. We want to live our way and do things we want. But in Christ, this shifts. We lay down our desires and choose to do things His way.

For example, we forgive, we serve, we give finances, we love, we worship, we pray, we’re humble, and more. We do these things because He’s leading us into His way of doing life.

When He’s the leader, we’re better. When He’s the leader, we’re protected. When He’s the leader, we’re going down a path that leads to life and promise. 

This is what we all want, and we can have it when He’s the leader.

Second, we are changing. 

When we are a follower of Jesus, we change. Our lives look different as the Holy Spirit removes things that need to go and adds things that need to be received. 

This means our speech, attitudes, actions, mentality, habits, desires, choices, and more change under His will for our lives. This happens from the inside out.

Our heart is deceitful and twisted; therefore, we don’t follow our heart; we obey God. Our heart is cleaned, changed, and made new in this process. In this process of a heart change, our lives begin to change. 

We’re made new. We’re made whole. We’re made to be like Him. 

He brings out the best in us and heals the worst in us. 

This is a lifelong journey that the Holy Spirit does within us. We reach for Him. We worship Him, and we follow Him. In doing so, we will be changed and be who He’s called us to be.

The best version of ourselves is the changed version He makes us!

Third, we’re a part of His church.

It’s impossible to love Jesus and hate His church. The church is the body of Jesus in the earth. He’s the head, meaning He’s in charge, and we are His hands and feet.

When we follow Jesus, we’re a part of His church. This translates into being connected in a local church and, at some point, being involved through serving, giving, being in groups, and more. This is how God is reaching the world and wants us to be a part of it.

However, there are so many layers to this, and people struggle with church. There are unmet expectations, hurt feelings, being offended, personal issues, distrust, and resistance to God.

All these things and more present barriers to being a part of, which means we must let God come into our hearts and help us overcome ourselves.

God has great things for you; what He has for your life will always be connected to others through the local church. This is the plan of God, and this is the way He does it.

So, choose His way and be a part of His church!

I hope your football team does excellent this year, but more importantly, I pray you follow Jesus all through.

God bless you today, and the best is yet to come!

PD