Giving Jesus the preeminence in your life, putting Jesus first in your life, making Jesus your example to follow and mimic, and placing Jesus before all things will make you a better person.

When you think of Jesus, what are the qualities that come to mind? He is pleasant, kind, loving, supportive, truthful, helpful, forgiving, friendly, playful, sensitive, compassionate, intellectual, accurate, a historian, a visionary, and He can cook fish on an open fire on a sandy beach…it just doesn’t get any better than that! If you were going to mimic anybody, wouldn’t you think it impossible to ever find any one person that would have every one of these qualities and more? Jesus is the very best person you could ever find; the only perfect person to walk this earth!

So, what do you suppose the results would be should a person choose to follow in the footsteps of such a man?

On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest possible, most complete score), where do you rank on this scale in the matching up to the qualities of Christ Jesus? Obviously, less than 10…right? Are you up to five? I guess it is safe to say, we all fall short (see Part 5B again); we all have room to improve our own qualities, and yet there are people around who love you! Inspite of your shortcomings, you are loved. You may be loved as a spouse or mate, a father or mother, a son or daughter, a brother or sister, even if you are a hermit with no interaction with other people, there is probably an animal that loves you because you’ve been kind in some way. Yes, if you look around you, shake off any self-pity, you will find someone or something that loves you for who you are. But…didn’t we just establish the fact that you come up short in the perfection column?

We see that inspite of our current less-than-perfect situation, we are loved; and we also agree that we have room to have higher and greater personal qualities. So the point then is this: If you could gain those higher and greater qualities by your relationship and closeness to Christ Jesus, then how much more would you be pleasant, kind, loving, supportive, truthful, helpful, forgiving, friendly, playful, sensitive, and compassionate?

Do you suppose if you were more pleasant, kind, loving, supportive, truthful, helpful, forgiving, friendly, playful, sensitive, and compassionate, that you would become a better husband or wife, a better brother or sister, a better son or daughter, or a better friend? The answer has to be “yes”, you would be a better person.

So, we have established that you and I could use help to become better people; and we have also established that a relationship with Jesus would be the help we need. We have also established that if we had even higher and better qualities, we would become better people to which those around us would like and appreciate. Therefore, it makes sense to follow Jesus and learn all we can from Him. Christians call this “walking in the footsteps of Jesus”. We try to “walk the walk”. This is what is behind the WWJD (what would Jesus do) movement. If I can mimic perfection and though I fall short, I will be better than I was before I tried to follow Jesus’ example.

Therefore, we see now that giving Jesus the preeminence in your life, putting Jesus first in your life, making Jesus your example to follow and mimic, and placing Jesus before all things will make you a better person. Placing Jesus before your wife will make you a better husband. Placing Jesus before your husband will make you a better wife. Placing Jesus before your mother or father will make you a better son or daughter. Placing Jesus before your brother or sister will make you a better brother or sister. Placing Jesus before yourself will make you a better disciple.

Having already said we need help and we fall short, there is another benefit to putting Jesus first in your life, and that is this: we get a helper. This “helper” is the Third Person in the Trinity, part of the God Head…the Holy Spirit.

You may be saying, Haven, I can’t do this; you don’t know me nor my checkered past. I say forget your past! The world will tell you that you cannot change the past; what’s happened has happened. I say the world is wrong! As a Christian you can give the past “new meanings”; what was a burden on your heart can now be lifted and forgiven. God will forgive and forget your sin if you ask Him to. Listen, if you ever ask for forgiveness from God, then later bring up your past again…God is going to tell you “what are you talking about? What are you talking about? I don’t see this stuff you are bringing up to Me.” And so, you do the same…forget your past…give your past new meaning and glorify the One that made all this possible!

I already told you that though you fall short of the whole goal, taking a couple of steps forward is certainly better than standing still where you are right now! We all carry excess baggage of our own making; following Jesus will bring us rest from our heavy burdens, (Matt. 11:28 LBCEV). So stop with all the excuses; God knows that you and I need a helper! Besides receiving help from those caring folks around you, the Holy Spirit will always be there to help you, to carry you, and to dust off your butt like a mammy, to send you along your way. Go, run and play little Johnny, but remember where your home is. Remember Jesus!

So you see, we have an example in Jesus Christ, and we have a helper in the Holy Spirit, and now you have been exposed to good things that will happen in your life if you will put Jesus first. Won’t you give Jesus the preeminence in your life? Make Jesus number One in your life, number One in your world, number One in your Universe, and number One in your heaven…. remember these four “ones”…11:11…and listen for God’s wonderful voice.

Amen and Blessings to you!

Haven “Muskrat” Mankin, author

See www.muskratbooks.com for the whole book, 11:11.